Examining the role of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbook discourses on normalising the Taliban’s violence in the USA’s Post 9/11 war on terror in South Waziristan, Pakistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This qualitative study analyses the discourses of Islamic Studies textbook to problematise its role in schoolchildren’s radicalisation, and normalisation of violence, in the post 9/11 situation in the Taliban’s stronghold, South Waziristan. The textbook findings are further substantiated by the field data collected from 40 students of grades 9 and 10, who studied the sampled textbook in the post 9/11 situation. Students’ perspectives, which relate their pedagogical experiences of the textbook in public schools, were gathered employing 16 in-depth individual interviews and 8 focus group discussions. Taking insights from Apple and Ball’s concepts of ‘legitimate knowledge’ and ‘normalisation’ respectively, the findings suggest that the sampled textbook strongly inspired a particular kind of Jihad (holy war), created hate-based ‘believers/Muslims’ versus ‘non-believers/Kuffar’ binaries, and profiled communities in opposition to each other. The students strongly identified with the discursive textbook representations, and participated in Jihad both as the Taliban commanders and foot soldiers. Some of them died young, however, the majority survived of which some recanted. Notwithstanding external influences, the study underlines the role that the textbook discourses and their pedagogical practices in schools played in radicalising the whole generation of schoolchildren and normalising the Taliban fronted violence in Pakistan’s tribal areas.