Just 17 when Taliban recruiters came to his impoverished village in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Shaukat Ali was trained to be a killer and sent to Afghanistan. "It was there, in Afghanistan, that Ali began to question the Taliban ideology in general and its treatment of women in particular," writes Karin Ronnow (Ode, November 2007).In another powerful, solutions-oriented article from Ode, we meet Shaukat Ali, who went from Taliban fighter to teacher at the Patika Girls’ School in Kashmir. He's making a difference that will affect us all.
The Taliban preys on the uneducated. "Ali is convinced educating girls in particular is the only way his country will change," writes Rannow. "Female literacy in the villages runs at about 4 percent. But educated girls will become educated mothers, argues Ali, and insist on education for their children, which could set the nation on a new track."
Click here to read Karin Ronnow's excellent "The Transformation of an Extremist."
