A+Queerly+Similar+Contemporary+Parallel

__The War on Education__
In the past few years, Taliban fighters in Afganistan have launched a campaign that is eerily similar to the circumstances in __My Bondage and My Freedom__. Their new crusade is against the education of girls. Jihadists have started burning down schools in an effort to directly prevent the education of girls. They also hope to scare other villages into closing down their own schools. So far 267 schools in Afganistan have been forced to shut down, leaving thousands of children without an education. Isalmic fanatics in Afghanistan have also started murdering schoolteachers as part of their campaign to break down the system of education in the country. This crusade halfway across the world may seem drastically different from the abrupt termination of Frederick Douglas' education, but there are in fact many similarities. As Douglas' white masters struggled to prevent his education and keep him in ignorance, as well as the Afghan jihadists, who are fiercely trying to keep girls away from the light of knowledge. Both parties understood that once the people they are trying to subjugate (blacks, women ) become educated, their minds are set free and they cannot be controlled. This is the direct opposite of what the white planters of Frederick Douglas' time and the Islamic fundamentalists want now. Frederick Douglas' master and his master's wife both wanted Douglas to stay ignorant and remain smart, the same as radical Islamists want women to remain in as second-class citizens and be dependent on men.

In the online article "Radical Islam's War on Terror" by [|Herschel Smith], much is revealed about Muslim attitudes towards women today. Many Muslims think of women as inferior to men, and believe women should be completely dependent on their husbands. Islamic fundamentalists also ferevently believe that a women's sole job is to create and rear children, and not to hold any profession of their own. This is partly why Muslim radicals have begun burning schools, to prevent women from recieving an education and getting jobs. The men may see educated women as a threat to their jobs and to their manliness. Since 9/11 has opened America's eyes up to the Muslim world, our attitudes about the rest of the world have changed. We now know that not all countries acknowledge and protect the rights of women and other minorities like our country does. Before 9/11 turned our attention upon the Middle East, most Americans did not think twice about our sacred rights, and regarded such matters as mundane. Since then, Americans have come to cherish our beloved rights even more, and to have more pride in being an American. insubordinated.
 * Two themes found in this article are:**
 * The use of violence and fear to keep people in ignorance.
 * The withholding of an education to keep a group unenlightened and thereby

For full article: http://www.captainsjournal.com/category/afghanistan/

My Bondage and My Freedom

Photo taken from: http://www.thesahara.net/taliban_rules.htm