On Tuesday, PBS [Public Broadcasting Service] Frontline/World aired a half hour documentary by Pakistani filmmaker/correspondent Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who traveled across the country to explore the growing popularity of the Taliban, as well as its impact on the next generation. I know many feel over-saturated with news regarding FATA and Swat, but I highly recommend watching this film [click the image above to view]. Obaid-Chinoy uncovers some shocking statements in the numerous interviews she conducts througout the segment.
I have always been interested in the psychological effect of war and violence on children. In the case of Pakistan, many living in the tribal areas and the frontier have witnessed countless incidents of death and violence at a young age; many have lost family members not to old age or sickness, but to bombings and drone attacks. They have lost the innocence that children are supposed to have at that age. In the film, ten year old Qainat, who lives in a rehabilitation center in Peshawar after a mortar struck her home (killing her sister and most of her extended family), told Obaid-Chinoy, “We saw the dead body of a policeman tied to a pole. His head had been chopped off. It was hanging between his legs. There was a note saying that if anyone moved the dead body, they would share its fate.”
What I also found significant was that the film highlighted the nuances of this conflict – that this war is not purely black-and-white. Although many blame Al Qaeda or the Taliban for the violence, many also blame the Pakistani Army for the ground operations that drove them from their homes or the United States for the recent drone attacks. According to the filmmaker, “There have been more than 30 U.S. missile strikes in the tribal areas in the last year. They target Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders, but civilians are often killed as well. It’s an easy recruiting tool for the Taliban.”
In the tribal areas, the Taliban has for some time been running their own schools and producing propaganda videos. What is disturbing is how many films like the one shown above are produced to recruit children into the Taliban. According to Obaid-Chinoy, the militants “target poor families and get them to send their children [to these madrassas].” The children are given free food and shelter and the families are sometimes paid. Schools like these are now said to be opening in Swat.
In one haunting interview, a teenager in Swat who joined the Taliban a year ago when he was 13 described his journey, “First it was the sermons at the mosque, then being recruited to a madrassa, and finally spending months in military training…They teach us to use a machine gun, Kalashnikov…Then they teach us how to do a suicide attack.” When Obaid-Chinoy asked if he’s like to carry out a suicide attack, the boy answered, “If God gives me strength.”
The PBS correspondent also reported the Taliban’s influence is slowly seeping into Pakistan’s major cities, including Karachi. In the last year, she noted, the slums of Karachi have become a new safe haven for these militants “who use criminal networks to raise funds for their war.” The poor areas of the city are increasingly becoming a new breeding ground for the next generation of Taliban fighters. Shaheed, a boy at a madrassa in Karachi, told Obaid-Chinoy calmly, “When I look at suicide bombers younger than me, or my age, I get so inspired by their terrific attacks…I would love to [perpetrate a suicide bombing] but only if I get permission from my father.”
When asked who he thought would win the war, Shaheed’s teacher provided a chilling response: “It’s in our blood. No matter how many Muslims die, we will never run out of sacrificial lambs.”
Obaid-Chinoy managed to also interview the Taliban commander personally responsible for recruiting children. Qari Abdullah, who revealed he recruits children as young as five, six and seven years old, told her, “Children are tools to achieve God’s will. And whatever comes your way, you sacrifice it.”
This film wouldn’t be nearly as disturbing if we had some assurance that the government was countering this extremist influence. However, with the decaying status of government schools, many poor families may feel the only option is to send their children to madrassas, particularly when they receive free boarding and food. [That is not to say that all madrassas breed extremists or suicide bombers, but a portion do.] If we were to provide another option to families – a diverse and more secular education – would parents still choose to send their children to madrassas?
Moreover, after a drone attack occurs, the film showed Taliban commanders holding rallies to vilify the United States and subsequently recruit further followers. Boys or men who have lost family members in the attacks often join seeking revenge. Given that Pakistan has a strong honor culture, that is not a surprising trend. However, are those same rallies matched by the Pakistan Army or the government villifying the Taliban after the havoc they wreak? I read statements, but I have not noted a clear strategic communications effort at the grassroots level. The lack of a coherent and tangible strategy is problematic in the war of perceptions, influence, and ideas.
It is one thing to envelop men into the shadows of militancy – but children? What is truly disgusting is the recruitment of child soldiers and child suicide bombers is not a new but an evolving trend. In Sierra Leone and Uganda, [as well as numerous other countries], hundreds of thousands have been turned into child soldiers, used to fight in civil wars. In Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, militant groups have used children to perpetrate suicide attacks. These examples are further evidence of this haunting and horrific phenomenon – a trend where groups manipulate a child’s innocence to warp their sense of right and wrong. In Pakistan, it seems that trend now persists among the Taliban’s next generation of fighters. What will we do to counter it?
Most disturbing. What I fail to understand that if Taliban can use drone attacks to their advantage and recruit more and more people, why can’t GoP engage civilians in the name of countless killing by Taliban?
Sameer, you echoed my sentiments exactly. The government needs to go beyond just making statements and citing rhetoric following bombings if they want to push the war of ideas in their favor. The fact that these propaganda videos are so easy to obtain in Karachi is frightening and telling of the fact that the Taliban are utilizing an effective communications strategy.
[…] the Taliban”, url: “http://teabreak.pk/children-of-the-taliban-42/19250/” }); Read more at: CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan bombings, child recruitment, chinoy, drone, effect of war, extended family, fata, ground […]
Just a comment about child soldiers. You’ve seen Blood Diamonds surely. That is such a great movie depicting child soldiers. Children are young, impressionable and susceptible to adopting heroes whom their elders tell them to worship.
These child soldiers aren’t the rich, lived life in the lap of luxury, golden spoon children. They’re the orphans, waiting for the next meal of the day, the downtrodden.
If government doesn’t come into help, of course other non-state actors which provide a hot meal and a bed will win over their sympathies.
Children can be made into lethal killing machines. The Taliban as well as the African militias are taking advantage of that.
What a sad state of affairs. As Zardari goes with his begging bowl to Tokyo, hope he can realize that maybe living a life close to the ordinary citizens is what can really change people’s minds about him.
This is my observation about the recruitment of child soldiers vs. child militants – and Yawar, I’m also thinking of movies like Blood Diamond as well as recent books that have come out on the topic.
In order to “brainwash” children to become soldiers – guerrilla groups like the LRA in Uganda separate these children from their families – they are taught that their “parent” or “security” is the gun they are holding. Drugs are also heavily used as a tool to make children dependent on the group.
In the case of the rising phenomenon of child suicide bombers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan – this aspect of revenge within an honor culture is an important recruiting mechanism. In the movie above, one of the young boys’ families were killed in a U.S. drone attack. His response? To join the Taliban to take revenge on the Americans. That is not the universal response, but it is a telling and significant example.
Like African child soldiers, there is a separation of many children from their families – like when parents send their kids to these madrassas where they receive free room and board.
And ultimately, the Taliban’s hardline interpretation of religion seems to be the biggest brainwashing tool – boys are taught to recite the Quran in Arabic, ultimately not understanding what they are reading themselves but what they are told. They do not study other subjects like math and science.
They do say that religion is the opiate of the masses.
Lots of her Pakistan broadcasting is here
http://sharmeenobaidfilms.com/archives/category/dispatches (incidentally shes 30/31 and has had a busy life)
The original boadcast a month back seems to have passed the 30 day expiry on Channel 4
but you can still download it from places like this http://www.mininova.org/tor/2390307
Its listed as 12 minutes longer than the one above, not sure what was cut out for the pbs version.
Oh the interview with her shows those two girls got moved by her dad to a different town as they weren’t allowed to go to school past the age of ten by the Taliban under the current peace deal.
Channel 4 dug out a bunch of related links too.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/pakistans-taliban-generation-related-links
Including a BBC interview with the reporter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2009_10_thu.shtml
The reporter has done a fair bit of stuff including going to Syria and Jordan to look at Iraqi refugees, not to mention her Afghanistan stuff.
More details here
http://sharmeenobaidfilms.com/
A quick read for more about Afghanistan is a very interesting BBC roundtable, the transcript of which is here
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/dispatches/sharmeen+obaidchinoy+bbc+interview/515847
Chilling in some ways for Pakistani women is detailing how she felt better in a burka.
Thanks for the links Chris – here is what Sharmeen said about not wearing the burka when she was filming:
“It’s too scary. The way men look at you, and the way they come and want to touch you if you are not wearing a burkha, and the look they have in their eyes when they see an unveiled woman – that is too frightening in many ways and I do think that many of those women do wear the burkha as protection.”
It’s horrifying that the Talibans are using little children as tools to do thier dirty work. It’s easy for them to tell others to sacrifice their lives while the former cower in their little territories. Disgusting, utter vanity! Read a similar article by Rhapsodysinger at http://dailylight.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/taliban-rising-or-the-murder-of-love-news-just-in/ and
http://dailylight.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/reading-277-from-erich-kastner-or-on-fundamentalism/
Thank you.
Hey Kals
I agree that the GoP has to do something. However, they have to be careful on how they combat the Taliban.
We can learn from the mistakes of the past in fighting guerilla warfare. For example, in Columbia– when Escobar had created his own militia to wreak havoc (he had a number of presidential candidates and practically the entire supreme court killed) the Columbian government funded an opposition guerilla movement to fight Escobar’s militia.
They ended up defeating him, however this group refused to disband and ended up causing more harm. That is, they ended up having a situation where you had another militia with a lot of weapons roaming about.
That example aside– not counting a full on military attack, Pakistan needs to be careful how to attack the Taliban.
This is a great idea and a perfect analogy. I had previously mentioned the similarity between the Colombian government / CIA’s fight against Escobar and the present day fight against the Taliban.
What CIA did was set up a group called Los Pepes (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar) who literally engaged in summary executions of ANYONE remotely connected to Escobar. That included lawyers, drivers, politicians, and sympathetic media personalities. It worked extremely well. They were supported by rival “Cali Cartel” drug smugglers, who had the capability to carry out hundreds of murders.
There are plenty of criminals in NWFP who, like most criminals, worship only money and power. CIA could pay off these people to go after Taliban, they would be more than willing.
The advantage with this is these guys are organised and quite willing to launch a campaign of terror, murdering, raping and torturing in a far more targeted fashion than the state is currently capable of. Further criminals never get that much support until they enter politics so aren’t as long term a threat.
The downside is all that murdering, raping and torturing to find out who to target is morally unacceptable currently.
Still that could change and certainly if the elite of Pakistan become threatened they will cheerfully unlease such a campaign, the question is then will they leave it to late and not have a big enough support base to retain power during those turbulent years?
The question then becomes do you want a flawed military campaign combined with whatever bribes and influencing you can fund now (cash, education, infrastructure etc) or a vicious CI operation in the future when either the core elements of the state are more convinced its a threat or you are at risk of losing power?
The situation has many solutions, however all of them concern cash (and the will to redirect it and ensure it is spent correctly) and the state regaining the appearance of possessing the monopoly of force, at least when it counts traditional western ideas about that wouldn’t have much traction in the frontier areas.
And the truth finally comes out…. who are the Taliban and what are their intentions. Now, can we please obliterate the whole lot. I apologize for the shocking words. KP
I understand that what you said KP was said in jest but your words aside, it’s basically a war of the so-called “liberals” against the so-called “fundos”.
But why create these divisions in the first place? WHy deal with them with attack helicopters and artillery (http://herekar.blogspot.com/2008/05/attack-helicopters-and-artillery.html) when forceful dialogue and incentives can help us achieve victory?
Almost a year ago, Kalsoom wrote about how the peace deal could be used to regroup. It was. We tried and we failed. Maybe now we can use economics and try to pacify them. Who said that money can’t buy happiness and when there’s happiness, there’s peace?
I say that we need to do something else to fight them. Something greater, something stronger and something more powerful than attack helicopters and artillery. And I think economics is the answer.
As Yoda said (using Adam Smith’s words): Guide you, the invisible hand shall.
Yawar, I think your assessment is correct. Economics provides us with a short-term as well as a long-term answer. If people aren’t susceptible to manipulation that encourages violence because they are no longer hungry, we can move onto more solidified long-term investments such as education, etc.
That being said, however, current reports about the extent of the influence of the Taliban in cities like Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi is indeed alarming. The Government needs to find a way to covertly disarm them. How they will achieve this is a difficult question to answer since our very military is deeply infused with radical elements.
In response to HGW and others who mentioned strengthening regional criminals who would better dismember the Taliban for money, one must remember the very recent history of the Taliban’s climb to influence and power: the war against the Soviets. The CIA, along with the regional support of Zia, greatly funded and strengthened the Taliban in order to oust the Soviets. They were, of course, successful. However, they ended up having an agenda all their own that has greatly contributed to the socio-political state of Pakistan and the world at large.
We should not empower (militarily, financially, and otherwise) those that have histories of violence and injustice. Those weapons can very easily be turned against us. Again.
The Government is in a difficult position now since they have made it clear that the Taliban can achieve little victories when they force the Government into a corner. Although I don’t think they should give up the quest to disarm and delegitimize the Taliban through forceful speech, limited incentives, economics, and the like.. I think the best option (perhaps only option) we have right now are the People themselves.
Despite the grey clouds, the last few years have brought about immense political mobilization on diverse levels of Pakistani society. Hopefully more and more people, like the villagers mentioned in a previous post, will wake up and take initiative in making the Taliban feel unwelcome on our lands.
I agree with your assessment, but it’s a question of what you think is worse. You’re alarmed by Taliban’s growing influence, as you well should be. But you’re not willing to keep all options on the table, so what do you expect?
Pakistan can’t continue to live with the philosophy of choosing the lesser of the two evils. How far has that brought us? Right here, in fact. This is where it has brought us.
I think different methods should be devised to combat the Taliban (such methods were mentioned above such as economics, incentives, forceful speech, investment in education etc), alongside altered military tactics which could very well include working with regional fighters who can better defeat the Taliban. However, my post did not remove your suggestion of the table. It merely proposed that we should be very careful with who/what groups we arm and empower since recent history has taught us otherwise.
What do I expect? I expect the people will be our greatest strength as adduced by the mass political mobilization, as well the case story of the villagers in the Swat region. The government, for its part, should, for now, as mentioned previously, continue to work with the Taliban to temporarily put a stop to the violence they are bringing in the Swat region, but should continue to devise ways to disarm them (granted that’s what AZ and others in the govt. want). Eventually I think their moves should culminate towards greater force (militarily) to finally and forever oust the Taliban.
Ps: The Pak. Military is a total type-A control freak. I don’t know how plausible it is that they would be willing to work on a civil issue with the help of outsiders/non-Pak.military people.
Sheerbrilliance, as much as I would like to believe everything, I think what you suggest is a pipe dream. There are too many factors, corruption being at the top of the list, that hinders all expectations. Not that I’m trying to portray a doom/gloom picture, but that is exactly what it has become. Where the Taliban gain their strenght with weapons, religion and instilling fear, the people of Pakistan can, as a whole rise against them. How many can they kill until they are disgusted with their own actions. An uprise is the only way. Diversion to other areas is another method but after watching the video, there is absolutely no chance left of that.
A completely insane thought….just because I am a bit religious and the signs are so amazingly true…of Osama Bin Laden as being the Anti Christ. He has led the innocents to that level of brother against brother. Whatever…it’s way past my bed time and I shouldn’t really even be online. KP
I didn’t discount the use of violence by any means. I merely proposed that we should be strategic in placing it into action. Warfare and physical force against the Taliban should be strategically and gradually implemented so as to minimize collateral damage on ground.
Agreed, it should also be coupled with intangible warfare, i.e. counterinsurgency tactics to minimize support for the Taliban.
[…] Given that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, in her PBS Frontline film “Children of Taliban,” also reported on the militants’ increased presence in Karachi, we should know better than to be in denial any […]
I have been dying to see this documentary but haven’t had the chance to do so yet. I will take some time out this weekend and check it out. Kalsoom, I may ask you for your opinions so I can do a short paragraph on the documentary and your personal view & thoughts for http://www.omarulhaq.wordpress.com. Cool?
Cool! 🙂
I watched this documentary the day after it was on aired, and In my opinion this documentary depicts a half truth.. Reminding you that this documentary has been shown on the national television and the extent to which US is involved in the backing of these terrorists has not been unveiled, neither be put into light. Instead the facts quoted such as ” These taliban’s fund themselves by looting the normal people in karachi is somewhat hilarious”.. Come’ on if you can take an opinion from an extremist qari why not take an opinion from a moderate Pakistani whether he supports it or not or what do he has to say about it.. You are potraying something which exists in minority not in a majority. I believe one should be balanced in his or her opinion while reporting…
Wslam
Thanks Ahmed Zoha,
While I see your point, I think Obaid Chinoy did a good job of interviewing all kinds of people – from soldiers to Taliban recruiters to children. She showed two diff sides of living in an IDP camp, from a boy who wants to join the Taliban to take revenge on the US to his best friend who wants to become a soldier in the Army. Obviously the doc isn’t perfect, but I think she tried to show a diversity of opinion.
[…] you recall from CHUP’s recent coverage of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s film Children of the Taliban, these camps have been and will continue to be recruiting grounds for the Taliban, particularly if […]
[…] you recall from CHUP’s recent coverage of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s film Children of the Taliban, these camps have been and will continue to be recruiting grounds for the Taliban, particularly if […]
[…] rise of Taliban influence in Pakistan’s urban areas, particularly in Karachi, is something I recently wrote about, and should be cause for concern. For the MQM to request that the IDPs be registered is both a […]
Nice effort. why cant we we tell them we dontwant this kind of islam? if some of us, actually very few, try totell this like sharmeen, we must give them a warm shoulder….we want peaceful islam….not the kind that is being portrayed…..