For Pakistan Taliban, critics at home front include mothers

[frigidmagi]

CSM

[quote]Deen Pana hasn’t heard from her son in six years.

She believes her only boy went to fight with the Pakistani Taliban, dominated by the Mehsud clan to which her family belongs. Many in the militant group are believed to have fled South Waziristan late last year as the Army launched operations here and in other tribal areas.

Though they live in this longtime Taliban stronghold and may even count militants as relatives, Ms. Pana and other women here are hardly proud mothers of jihad. They don’t support the cause – instead, they fear for their sons going to war. Yet in a culture where women have little say – even within their families – there’s little they can do to prevent their sons from being radicalized.

“The role of these women in all this war ... is of silent sufferers,â€

[Hadrianvs]

Holy war is still war. It breaks families and ruins economies.

Incidentally, "madrasah" is just Arabic for "school". A secular educational institution is just as much a "madrasah" as one that teaches young men to die for the glory of God. Given the radicalization of Islam it's no surprise that the meaning of the term has come to be distorted, but outright claiming that madrasah means a place of religious indoctrination is either dishonest or ignorant.