Growing number of Daikundi youth evince interest in seminaries

NEILI (Pajhwok): Many new religious seminaries have been established in central Daikundi province and the interest of youth in religious education besides scientific subjects has increased, local officials said on Wednesday.

Dozens of religious seminaries were registered with the government after the Islamic Emirate (IE)’s takeover and the interest of youth in learning religious subjects has grown significantly.

Owner of a seminary, Ayub Mirzai, told Pajhwok Afghan News recently an increasing number of boys and girls evinced interest in religious education.

He said: “There were only 8 or 10 students in a class in the past, but now the number of students in each class has doubled. In past years, only a few students studied, but now our seminary is scrambling to accommodate students.”

“Apart from learning scientific subjects, it is important to learn religion and girls are more interested in religious education than boys”, he believed.

Mirzai said: “We started a course of tajweed this year, I didn’t expect 20 students at the beginning, but then I enrolled 80 girls in the course, many more are interested to be enrolled, some even want to learn religious subjects at their own expenses.”

Nik Mohammad, a youth who got enrolled in a religious seminary this year, said he started learning religious subjects by realizing their importance in the society.

He said religious education should be institutionalized and urged the government to provide more facilities for learning religious sciences.

Zahra, a female student of a seminary in Daikundi, said learning religious subjects were important for the country’s development and for the spread of Islam in the world.

Zahra said: “By learning religious sciences, we want to know all the advantages and obligations of Islam and to show to the Western world and anti-Islamists that this religion is the best religion for humanity.”

Mohammad Nadir, chancellor of Al Zahra Seminary, said that the interest of the youth in learning religious subjects had increased.

He said the number of students in his two seminaries under his chancellorship was increasing day by day.

He clarified a small number of students would be enrolled in the past, but now many youth had joined religious seminaries.

He said in the past there were not many facilities for the youth to learn religious subjects, but now they were provided with facilities to learn both religious and scientific subjects.

Provincial Education Department officials say many youth have turned to learning religion besides schools.

Daikundi education department head Enayatullah Sahaar said the youth were interested in religious sciences and a significant number of them were attending seminaries.

Sahaar said: “The youth have realized the importance of religious seminaries, so they have started learning both religious and scientific subjects and the officials concerned are paying attention to the establishment of more seminaries as per people’s demand.”

Without providing figures for students enrolled in seminaries, he said that about 95 seminaries were created in the province based on the demand of residents.

He said in the past seminaries were not registered with the Ministry of Education but now they operated officially within the ministry’s structure.

aw/ma

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