A crack has opened in the cast-iron rules surrounding Pakistan’s madrasas, and cricket, South Asia’s favourite sport, has rushed in.
Students from 24 religious schools in Islamabad, including the hardline Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), have been taking part in the past week in a cricket tournament organised by the city authorities as part of measures to regulate and revamp the schools. The students swapped their shalwar kameez for track pants and T-shirts, and sticks for cricket bats.
By all accounts, the games have been successful as enthusiastic crowds of skull-capped and turbaned students thronged the grounds to watch their schoolmates play with teams drawn from other schools, some of them from different sects who have often clashed in the past.
One blogger wrote that the games were a ray of light during a week clouded by a resurgence in political violence. Women students also took a break from their rigid, dawn-to-dusk schedules to take part in a badminton tournament held alongside the cricket contest.
Change was coming to the madrasas, but it would take a lot of doing before the schools shed their image as breeding grounds of extremism, Pakistani blogs and newspapers said. Indeed, some students from the Red Mosque said they had come to the tournament against the wishes of their teachers who said it was “unIslamic” because it was being covered by television channels.
Others said it was not cricket but a conspiracy against the seminaries.
The Lal Masjid, in the heart of Islamabad, was the scene of a bloody battle last year when troops stormed the mosque to put down a Taliban-style student movement, triggering in turn a wave of suicide bombings and blasts throughout the country culminating in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The assault on the mosque after a long siege was widely seen as the turning point in the war against militancy. The mosque has since opened and Islamabad officials, prodded by a new civilian government, are hoping to introduce maths, science and computer studies in the madrasas in the capital after the cricket success.
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4 comments so far
Better play with a ball than grenades or stones.
- Posted by JacquesThe article is very interesting and reveals a humane side of life in Pakistan. All we have been hearing about pakistan is violence and elections. This shows that real people live in Pakistan and also that the love for cricket in the sub continebt cannot be contained.
- Posted by sapna waliaFrom reading the various articles in the media it sounds like the Red Mosque, and some of the madrasas would be similar to the ‘Lord of the Flies’ story. Only self serving, arrogantly ingnorant, religion ‘basher’s would say cricket was unislamic or a conspiracy against the seminaries. The only conspiracy is that the children taking part are actually learning that there is more to life than murder and mayhem. The religion bashers are slowly losing complete power over the children and of course it is going to upset them. What on earth had they been teaching in these madrasas if they weren’t even teaching the basics - maths and science? Oh, silly me, of course, I understand … murder and mayhem….. It is pleasing to know that there are actually some decent people still there to educate the children, and cricket is a good start. Good luck!
- Posted by Conscientious ObserverAs an Indian I’ve heard a lot about these games and sports in Pakistan but ultimately things boil down to nothingness. Its a pleasure to know that Pakistanis are desperately trying to break the religious fetters and come out in the open. But it is also disheartening to know that some mullah or someone will choke their voice. Nevetheless, hats off to them who are willing to discover the brave new world.
- Posted by Sanat Sur