Afghan Girls’ School Attacked With Poison Gas By Those Opposed To Educating Women

Reuters is reporting that a number of Afghan schoolgirls have become ill over the weekend as a result of a poison gas attack on the girls' school.

There have been cases in the past of possible poison attacks that turned out to be false. Officials in Afghanistan are concerned that insurgents that are against the education of young women attacked the girls' school with poison gas.

According to Reuters at least 74 girls became ill after smelling poison gas during the day at the Bibi Maryam School in the capital of Takhar Province in Taluqan.

A spokesman for the Takhar government told Reuters he "blamed enemies of the government and the country for the mass illness." The spokesman also voiced his belief that the attack was used as a way of sending message to those who would educate women.

The Taliban has no logical reason as to why they are against the education of women. Not that the Taliban has a logical reason for anything they do. Theories as to why the terrorist group is so anti education for women is that if a woman is educated she will demand equal rights.

Oppressed Middle Eastern women are denied an education and are sub servant to the men in their lives. This is not to say that every man in the Middle East keeps his wife or daughter as a slave. The Taliban operates from an archaic set of honor rules; keeping women from reaping the benefits of an education is one of them.

Nobody has come forward to claim the attack on the girls' school. Reuters reports that blood samples taken from the sick schoolgirls have been sent out for testing and Doctors will soon know what is afflicting their patients.

According to Reuters, "Between May and June last year there were four poisoning attacks on a girls' school in Takhar."

The women of Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East will not be bullied by the attempts to keep them from enjoying a full education. Mala Yousafzai returned to school this month for the first time since being shot in the head by Taliban insurgents for promoting a woman's right to education.

""I am excited that today I have achieved my dream of going back to school," Malala said in a press release. "I want all girls in the world to have this basic opportunity."