Our Very Own Children's Gulag

There is no greater helplessness than that of a mother whose heart constantly wails inside her -- unable to secure even two square meals a day, forced by the pangs of hunger to finally hand over her own flesh and blood, her little child, to the unfamiliar hands of a Qawami Madrasa's preceptor. 

With not a single coin in her pocket and no means to provide daily bread, that mother sends her tiny child away to a dark, unknown world.

She only sought a bit of shelter; could she ever have known that beneath this guise of affection, all the inner light of her innocent child would be extinguished forever?

​Standing in the shoes of that child today, my heart shatters into bleeding pieces. A child who perhaps cannot even read his mother tongue fluently, whose hands should have held a colorful notebook and a pencil, is seated instead within a rigid prison -- where every day, under the guise of memorizing strange chants in an unfamiliar language, an invisible mental indoctrination is forced upon him.

​The Medina of the Prophet Versus Today's Mechanical Cage

​Looking at today's society of strict purdah, walls, and division, a question arises in the mind: Did our Prophet ever teach such a religion?

In the open, vibrant Medina of that early era, women were by no means cornered in their homes. In the lively courtyard of the Prophet's Mosque, young men and women sat together to acquire knowledge, asked questions directly of the Prophet, and exchanged views on the complex issues of life.

Women like Hazrat Ayesha stood as the leading teachers, jurists, and pathfinders of that age. The Islam of those days was rational, liberal, inclusive, and a boundless sky for the pursuit of knowledge.

​Yet today, within the high walls and closed doors of the Qawami Madrasa, not a trace of that Prophetic liberalism remains. That living, questioning, and liberated society of the Prophet has been transformed into a terrifying, blind, and suffocating prison.

Uncomprehending Chants and the Death of Curiosity

​At an age when a child should have a thousand questions about the surrounding world—when the curiosity should burn to know why the sky is blue or how rivers flow -- such a language and code are forced upon his tiny head without him understanding a single letter of it.

He cannot even read Bengali properly, yet he is compelled day after day to memorize uncomprehended words like a parrot.

No questions are permitted there; to want to know anything is an offense in itself. Under the pressure of this continuous discipline, the liberating spirit within the child slowly withers away. He is taught to stop thinking for himself and to simply obey commands.

​Violence and Blindness Born Within the Cage of Fear

​Growing up within this questioning-free, terrifying dark enclosure, a rigid inflexibility is woven into the child's subconscious mind. He is taught that everything outside his own belief is an enemy; that this world is merely a ruthless battle between absolute white and black. He is innocent; he cannot even understand how he is gradually being forged into an instrument of blind vengeance.

​When he finally steps outside the boundaries of this madrasa as a grown youth, he sees that he possesses no modern skills, no means to earn his daily bread. An empty pocket, accumulated frustration residing deep in his chest, and years of instilled intolerance suddenly ignite together.

At that moment, that young man can no longer restrain himself. The one who should have been nurtured in the lap of love is instead persuaded that destruction is his true duty.

Then those very tender hands suddenly erupt into a frenzy of smashing shrines, dragging the lifeless bodies of fakirs through the streets and burning them. He does not even realize what he is doing, because his entire being is governed solely by the blind hatred and fear instilled by others.

 Whose Interests Do This Ignorance and Blindness Serve?

​Looking at this entire system, a major question comes to mind: Who truly profits from creating an intolerant force by robbing these children of their childhood? The Prophet was never in favor of monarchy or autocracy; he always desired that human beings think freely and remain liberated. Yet today's ignorance and blindness cunningly serve the interests of several key beneficiaries:

​Authoritarian and Power-Hungry Rulers: People who do not know how to question and are accustomed only to blind obedience can never stand against corruption or injustice. By maintaining this blind system, rulers secure a compliant and easily controllable populace—a subservient crowd that never raises a peep regarding their rights.

​Geo-political and Imperialist Forces: History -- from the Cold War to global politics—shows that certain superpowers have utilized these radical and intolerant factions to preserve their own dominance and sustain the market for arms.

When instability and extremism persist in a society, it becomes easier for foreign powers to exert control.

​Domestic Self-Seeking Leadership: A class of religious traders and influential leaders within this system profit directly and financially. Millions of taka in donations and zakat sent from home and abroad in the names of destitute and orphan children remain entirely unaccounted for. To preserve this reign of looting, they crush the curiosity of ordinary people.

A Young Man's Cry of Anguish Looking into the Mirror

​If any young man or teacher emerging from this process were to look into a mirror today, he would shudder. He would witness how all his inner grace and tolerance had been stripped away. The heart that was meant to live in harmony with everyone has become nothing but walls upon walls. Without realizing it, he has lost the simple, beautiful form of his humanity.

​The Urgent Need for the Collapse of This Blind System Amidst the Ruins of Culture and Society

​A deep observation of this entire system reveals clearly that it is serving no child, no family, nor society as a whole. The child losing his childhood, the family weeping as they hand their offspring over to the grips of darkness, or a society becoming unlivable for independent thinkers and dissenters -- none of them gain anything from this arrangement. It is merely a ruthless tool to preserve the interests of a handful of opportunistic and power-hungry individuals.

Today, this system is devouring and destroying from within our centuries-old culture, mutual tolerance, and our entire society.

To halt this blind expansion of those who cannot tolerate any difference of opinion, and to protect our collective future, rising against this destructive system and radically transforming it is the greatest demand of our time.

Anusheh Anadil is a Bangladeshi musician, artist, cultural activist, and social entrepreneur.