"Free" education in chains

Boys escape from madrassa in chains

“They beat us every day, kept us in chains and gave very little food to eat. We want to go home,” Ammar, the younger boy, told a court hearing after which the boys were handed over to their family. Complaints about conditions in madrassas are widespread in Pakistan, where more than 12,000 religious schools provide free education, food and shelter to about a million children, most of them from poor families. The government launched a drive in 2003 to reform madrassas but this has faltered due to opposition from hardline Islamists.

(via Blasfemias)