Sarah Birke-August 01 2009-ALEPPO, SYRIA — In a room off the courtyard of a restored school, tucked away in the winding maze of streets in Aleppo’s old city, girls in hijab and long coats jostle around a table to watch as their teacher explains how to make a Greek salad.
In an adjacent room, more faces focus expectantly on a whiteboard as the teacher takes them through English and Arabic sentence structure.
This is Aleppo’s school for brides-to-be, which has been running in the conservative neighbourhood of Qalat ash-Sharief for just over a year. The young Muslim girls are taught skills that will be useful when they marry – an inevitable eventuality in an economically and educationally poor area of the city where women are expected to take a traditional family role.
The subjects are broad, including literacy, embroidery, cooking, psychological awareness, first aid, child-raising and family health care, including the importance of breast-feeding. “We want to prepare the girls to be good wives and mothers,” said Rasha Arous, the programme’s manager at Aga Khan Cultural Services, part of the Aga Khan Development Network, which runs the school.
Ismailimail 