CAMP ZAFAYE, Chad (AP) – In Chad, children in a camp for Muslim refugees who fled sectarian violence in neighboring Central African Republic learn the Quran the hard way.
About 30 young girls and boys, sitting on chairs on separate sides of the makeshift classroom, loudly recite verses of the Quran. The teacher, in his late teens, walks among the pupils, holding a leather whip by its wooden handle. The girls all wear head scarves.
A pupil who doesn’t recite the holy words loud enough is punished by a lash. A mistake is punished by a lash. A moment of inattention gets a lash.
The devout parents send their children to the madrassa despite the corporal punishment. The madrassa, shaded from the blistering sun by the wall of a building and a concrete roof, is unofficial. A regular school under a white tarp has formally been set up elsewhere in the camp.
As an Associated Press journalist visited the madrassa on Wednesday, a small boy, sitting on the ground with others and too young to speak, was hit in the eye by a lash meant for an older girl. As he started crying and the loud singing continued, the teacher tenderly put his hand on the youngster’s face.