A story in the New Zealand Listener magazine in 2022 about Afghanistan under the Taliban falsely claimed early in the story that it was because of “Koranic edict” that girls are not being educated there.

Readers were quick to respond, and this is the text of the letter that was published the following week as the lead letter in that issue:

“Chris Henderson (‘Talking with the Taliban’, February 19) is wrong to imply that girls are not being educated in Afghanistan under the Taliban because of ‘Koranic edict’. The Quran (preferred spelling for our holy book) makes no distinction between men and women in recommending the pursuit of education and acquisition of knowledge.
However, for centuries some verses have been misrepresented by patriarchal and literal interpretation, by men seeking to promote cultural male supremacy. As always, the distinction needs to be made between culture and religion.

“Furthermore, inadequate translation of Arabic words and phrases does not help. The Quran uses the word ‘insaan’, which means either a man or a woman, whereas most translations into English render it as ‘man’. Similarly, the phrase ‘olul albaab’ includes men and women but most translations say ‘men of understanding’.

“Throughout Islamic history, many Muslim women were involved in the founding of educational institutions. Most notable was Fatima al-Fihri, who established Al Qarawiyyin in Morocco in 859 CE. It remains, according to UNESCO and others, the world’s oldest extant university.

“‘Acquisition of knowledge is binding on all Muslims, male and female’, the prophet Muhammad said. So to claim that the Quran has put girls and women in Afghanistan in their current position is untrue.

“Wherever females are educated, it has been shown that they and the entire society benefit.”

Comment

This is a case study in how to respond to falsehoods in the media:

• Act quickly, to meet deadlines while the story is still fresh in people’s minds.

• Use evidence to back up your claim.

• Play by their rules – no more than 300 words in this instance.

Curiously, they chose to edit out this sentence from the letter writers’ original submission: “It is our prayer and hope that the girls and women of Afghanistan can be allowed education in safety.”

One can only wonder why they did so. And irritatingly, they chose to put quotation marks around Quran in the headline, marking it out as a foreign (i.e., not English) word whereas leading dictionaries including Oxford, Collins and Longman judge it to be a perfectly acceptable English word.