Afghanistan struggles to keep girls' schools open

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — In late September, Julia Bolz got disturbing news about the first girls' school she'd helped build in Afghanistan .A young militant, recently returned from Pakistan , was whipping up opposition to the school in the small village outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. At night, he and his allies put leaflets on doorsteps. During the day, they patrolled the street in front of the school on motorbikes and warned the girls to stay away.The principal was told to shut down the 7-year-old school or face assassination. To reduce the risk of beheading, he moved out of his home.When Bolz heard about the threat, her initial impulse was to attend the community meeting set up to confront the militants."I wanted to be a voice for these girls," recalls Bolz, a Seattle attorney. "But I was told that if someone from the West came, it would show that this school was a Western idea. It was important that this be an Afghan meeting."So Bolz stayed away, hoping for the best from an Afghan village that's undergone seismic change as girls, for decades shut out of the education system, have been given a chance to go to school. ( McClatchy isn't naming the village for security reasons.)In the past seven years, Bolz has raised money to construct 19 new schools and repair more than a dozen others in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan . Those schools, now operated by the Afghan Ministry of Education , serve nearly 18,000 students, most of whom are girls.Next year, Bolz's organization, Ayni Education International , plans to spend about $600,000 building, expanding and maintaining schools as well as operating two teacher training centers.Bolz, 48, hasn't gained the fame that envelops Greg Mortenson , whose best-selling book "Three Cups of Tea" chronicles his transition from climbing mountains to building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan .However, she's achieved notable success bolstering education in a nation where too many aid efforts have foundered.Bolz, who no longer practices law, spends part of the year in the U.S. tapping a fundraising network that ranges from Seattle schoolchildren to the National Geographic Society , and part of the year in Afghanistan rallying community support.Her work is part of a broader international effort to revive an Afghan education system shattered by 30 years of war, in which schools often have been under siege.During the Soviet occupation from 1979-1989, schools were targeted by mujahedeen forces, wary that they might spread communist ideology. More recently, schools have been attacked by Taliban insurgents who want to keep girls at home and educate boys in religious madrassas that teach a militant interpretation of Islam.In the past seven years, the U.S. government has helped to build or renovate 680 Afghan schools, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is spending $94 million to train and support teachers.Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has cited expanding the education system as an important part of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan .Just like the military fight, there have been plenty of setbacks, however.Some 45 percent of Afghanistan's school-age children — 5 million boys and girls — still don't have access to primary education. In some remote areas, there never have been schools. In other areas, the Taliban have burned, bombed or otherwise shut down hundreds of schools, including some built with U.S. or other Western aid."If we send our children to these schools, then the Taliban , they will come to our homes at night and kill us," said a Pashtun elder in an Arghandab village in southern Afghanistan , where a large, modern school built with Japanese aid now stands empty.Bolz first arrived in Balkh province in January 2002 , right after the fall of the Taliban . She'd been an immigration attorney in Seattle and decided on a dramatic career change after he