‘Jihad literacy’: the legacy of US-sponsored textbooks for Afghan children

ABSTRACT

This paper uses critical discourse analysis and critical literacy to analyze the first in a series of literacy primers developed with US support for children in Afghanistan in the 1980s, called ‘Jihad literacy’. The text is analyzed for its ideological content as related to the themes of religion, violence, and martyrdom in the historical perspective of the Cold War and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The paper demonstrates how the notion of ‘Jihad’ was subverted to promote a holy war against the Soviet invasion. The educational system supported by the US created a radical version of Islam based on violence and martyrdom, shaping the Afghan society to this day. We contend that the same or similar institutions shape current discourses as in the past and that children are the main victims of politico-economic warfare.

KEYWORDS:

• Afghanistan
• cold war
• Jihad
• Jihad literacy
• Martyrdom
• USAID

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Estimated age of enrollment, as there is no official recording of birth in rural Afghanistan. The enrollment age was 7 but the first author was told his age was ‘maybe 5’.

2 In the End of Project report (1994), the Jihad Literacy textbooks are referred to as adult literacy textbooks. However, within the textbooks there is no indication that these are developed for adult learners. Moreover, their pedagogical approach is that of children’s learning and they were used mainly in primary schools.

3 The text doesn’t use the word ‘oh’ in Pashto but ‘Great God’ is used in a manner of begging God or calling on God for help. In lacking an English term for this, we have translated this intension as ‘oh Great God.’

4 This cloud for analysis purposes combines transliteration and translation; hence Jihad (which is the same in transliteration and translation) is appearing twice.

5 The remaining portion of the verse below is excluded from the text of the logo: ‘And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good.’