Pakistan: Female Teachers and Students Told to Wear Burqa or Risk Death
Oct 16 2007
Postings >> Pakistan

Female teachers and students at all schools in the Swat district of north-west Pakistan have been told to wear the burqa or risk death.

Swat's Executive District Officer (EDO) has issued a notice requiring even Christian women and girls to put on full-body Islamic dress, according to the regional newspaper Daily Mashriq. He said pressure from Taliban extremists had left him with no option.

The church-run Public High School in Sangota has already received threats of suicide bombings unless its students wear burqas and its Christian and male teachers are dismissed. The girls school was forced to close for a week in September after more threats and accusations that it had been trying to convert students to Christianity. More than 99 per cent of its 950 students are Muslim, says Compass Direct.

Christians in Swat, of whom there are about 1,000, report that the situation has deteriorated since the government stand-off with Islamist extremists at the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July. Many Christian businesses and a Christian retreat centre have been forced to close.

• Pray for the church in Swat district, under pressure from the men of violence. Ask God to uphold and strengthen His people in the region.
• Pray for good inter-faith relations at Sangota's Public High School.