The night I slept at a madrassa.

As the western perception of Pakistan (and islam in general) goes, the word “madrassa” often brings with it thoughts of brain washed students, waiting to join forces with an ever growing Taliban or Al Queda movement. It brings with it thoughts of eager young men training for jihad, excitedly looking forward to the 72 virgins awaiting them in heaven. (Side note: 72 virgins is a popular myth in Pakistan, as of yet, the persons I have spoken to have not been able to find any mention of this number in the Qua-ran. It is however stated that a hoor is promised to those who obtain martyrdom through Jihad- a virgin whose beauty is incomparable.)

In reality, the large majority of madrassas are places of learning. Places where students come to reading and writing, while filling their minds with with the Prophet Muhammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) messages of peace for the Muslim community. It gives students a place to come together, and provides a healthy environment of disciplined learning.

In many cases madrassas provide students with 3 meals, a roof overhead, and a religiously based education, alleviating some of the financial strain of low income families (and providing education where there is often none available). Madrasses come in all shapes and sizes, from boarding-school ideas where children live within the institute's safe walls, to once a week meetings in which children recite the Qua-ran.

My madrassa experience fell in between both of those mentioned above. A place for children to go on sunday mornings after Fajr prayer (early morning prayer, just after sunrise) and after school. It acts as a safe0house for students of low income families, providing children with an after school snack and a means to stay out of trouble. Students recite the Qua-ran in its original Arabic, but also learn the translated version. This guarantees that students actually receive the message of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H.) in a language they understand. They practice reading the qua-ran and must write verses both in Arabic and Urdu. Every bit of practice is beneficial to children who come from areas where public school systems are unreliable.

Sunday morning in Farooq Abad, the small village in Pakistan's Punjab Province in which this particular madrassa is located. The village is awoken by the (approximately) 530 am Fajr or call to prayer. In the past nine months I have learned to largely ignore this call, and usually continue sleeping. This particular morning, I did the same. It was not until a few minutes later, that I heard the voices of many children, reciting the Qua-ran. As the congregation was just outside of my allotted bedroom door, I was able to hear clearly the recitation, and the children's strict attempts to keep up with 'the beat'.

To be honest, as I was not aware of this home's part-time status as a madrassa, the sounds were at first quite eerie. The children's voices, so perfectly in tune, reciting, almost chanting. But as I listened, waving between wake and sleep, the sounds had an element of beauty, of peace and of brotherhood. Just as it should.

Having recently done research on education in Pakistan, I learned of the stark inefficiencies in the educational system, caused by a number of factors. These include corruption and a lack of transparency, a lack of properly trained educators, and volatile political situation in which an outright civil war is being fought in some areas of Pakistan. These also include a weak belief in the necessities of basic education (especially in rural or remote areas), the unavailability of education (and educational facilities) in many areas of Pakistan, and the inability for low income families to pay for their children to go to school (or even to lose out on the extra income generated by their children while they would be in school). In many cases, the madrassa that operates in dangerous areas and provides students with three meals a day, a roof overhead and more than a basic education based upon strict Islamic principles is a parent's only option. These types of incentives leave parents with little choice between giving their children poverty or giving their children a future.

The problems lie, of course, in the few madrassas that do cater to the dangerous, using a students' poverty and lack of education to brain wash. Monitoring mechanisms must be put in place to safeguard the sanctity of the madrassa as a place of learning peace, and not violence. Again, Pakistan's organizational inabilities and real pressure from hardline Islamic militants discourage this type of monitoring, creating the religiously insensitive and gender biased militants of tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to photograph children during their recitations.