Afghanistan: July 10, 2003

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Efforts to restore education in the country have been a success, so far. In 2001, only about 150,000 children (all of them boys) were attending school. Now there are 3.6 million (a third of them girls.) But the money to pay the teachers and maintain (or build) the schools has to come from foreign aid. And many tribes (especially Pushtun ones) are hostile to educating girls or, in some cases, educating boys in subjects other than the study of the Koran and the Arab language (which the Koran is written in.) American troops try to provide some security as they search for Taliban and al Qaeda elements, as these people are also hostile to non religious education and any education for girls.