DOUENTZA, Mali — Radicals who control northern Mali are reopening some schools, though girls now must wear veils and are being seated separately in the back or coming at a different time altogether. The separation of boys and girls in the classroom is the latest example of how the Islamists are implementing their strict agenda in the vast north where Al-Qaeda-linked militants roam. The town of Douentza fell to the Islamists during the months when school was out, and upon returning 13-year-old Techerif Toure had to take her place at the back of the room behind her male classmates. Still, she was eager to start the new year this week. “Having the boys in the front and the girls in the back matters little. The important thing is to study,” she said from her seat in the back row by the blackboard, her head covered in a plain black veil. Her male classmate Madou Maiga said he liked the new arrangement because “the girls talk too much and that keeps us from concentrating on our studies.” Their teacher Toure Zala Baba said she is only following orders from the Islamists who now run Douentza, located just 175 km from the government-controlled commercial hub of Mopti. “Before were were colonized by the French who left behind their system of mixed classes,” she said. “Today we are colonized by the Islamists and we apply their method.” Douentza students are among the lucky ones, as many schools in the north of Mali haven't reopened following summer vacation. — AP
