Project

Pakistan: Hearts and Minds

In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks and the Obama administration's announcement of troop increases in Afghanistan, Pakistan has emerged as a central front in the War on Terror. As new leaders in Washington and Islamabad struggle against a surge of Islamic militancy and growing political instability in the country, it is increasingly clear that their success will not be a question of military strategy alone. The larger challenge will be to win the hearts and minds of 170 million Pakistanis, whose lack of economic and educational opportunities and frustration with neglect by the country's political elite, threaten Pakistan's fragile stability.

Pakistan: The Battle for Hearts and Minds is a reporting project focused on education issues throughout the country, from rural madrassas to schools being built in slums for the urban poor. In a country where estimates show total literacy rates hovering at fifty percent (36% for women) and where Islamic schools—often charged with promoting religious extremism—offer the only education opportunity for many, education will be critical to Pakistan's future.

This project seeks to go beyond daily news reports on the latest bombings and military reprisals to cover instability and change in Pakistani society as a whole. We aim to introduce American audiences to the people behind the headlines and explore the complex issues of this pivotal nation. A key element of this reporting project is its innovative educational component. Students at Seattle's public high schools will read reports from the field and interact online with Pakistani students at partner schools to discuss the local and global education issues that impact their daily lives.

Pakistani Immigrants in Seattle Confront a Huge Challenge at Home

As the first notes of the Quran, sung by a diminutive imam in an embroidered prayer cap, fill the Westin Bellevue's ornate Grand Ballroom, a sea of hands moves to cover heads.

At the hotel, 450 people from Seattle's growing Pakistani community have gathered to help the troubled country they left behind.

It's been a tough year for Pakistan.

Pakistanis in Seattle Give a Pakistan Community the Gift of Girls' School

Thirteen-year-old Humiera Kausar's oversized sneakers hurry over piles of granite boulders and through scrubby pines bristling with last night's rain. A headscarf and pink shawl are wound tightly around her small frame to protect against the thick mist that has settled over her high mountain village.

Her school uniform, traditional baggy pants and a long tunic, is glowing white and Humiera is careful not to soil the cuffs as she quickly makes her way along a rugged green spine of the Karakoram foothills. She's late for school and still almost four miles away.

The Ghost Schools of Pakistan

Despite ankle deep garbage, charcoal-scribbled graffiti of machine guns and the scorched remains of squatters' fires, the dusty green chalkboard still reads "December 2, 2006," the last day that classes were held in the primary school wing of Mirza Adam Khan, a government-run compound of schools in the poor and violence plagued Karachi neighborhood of Lyari.