OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- At a spotless and modern-looking madrasah in Kyrgyzstan's southern Osh Province, two teenage girls studying the Koran admit that they know little about the Arabic text they have just recited.
"I don’t know its meaning," replied one student when asked to explain the message of the 30th Surah, known in Arabic as Ar-Rum.
"I just read An-Naba," said another student, referring to the 78th of 114 surahs in the Islamic holy book. "But I don't yet understand its meaning."
Ibadat Mozhueva, a teacher at the all-girls Islamic school in the village of Myrza-Ake in Osh's Uzgen district, says that this is to be expected.
"In general, three years of madrasah [Islamic schooling] is not enough to study 'tafsir,'" Mozhueva explained, using the Arabic word for Koranic commentaries, or interpretations of the holy book.
"You need to learn grammar, read a lot, and only then progress to the interpretation of the Koran," she said. "We do not study 'tafsir' here."
Schools like this one, called the Abdiraim Kari madrasah and situated in the village of Myrza-Ake, are at the center of a heated debate around Islamic education in Kyrgyzstan.
On the one hand there is growing demand for religious schooling, including by families interested in preparing girls to serve as brides steeped in Islamic mores and traditions.
On the other hand, there are concerns about government regulation of the often closed-off institutions, including over funding sources, the quality of education, and their potential to decouple students from secular society -- a trend that many argue could empower extremist ideologues.
'Too Many' Madrasahs?
According to Kyrgyzstan's state-endorsed Muftiate, there are presently 130 registered institutions providing Islamic religious education in the country, including 34 madrasahs for girls who have finished the ninth grade. Altogether more than 6,000 female students, typically aged 15 and above, are presently enrolled in religious education in the country of around 7 million people.
By comparison, neighboring Kazakhstan -- a country with nearly three times the population of Kyrgyzstan -- has only 12 state madrasahs, including three for girls and women. In Uzbekistan, with nearly 35 million people, there are just 15 madrasahs in total, overwhelmingly catering to university-age students.
The numbers reflect the comparatively relaxed stance toward religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan. But Orozbek Moldaliev, a former chairman of the State Commission on Religious Affairs, said that there were probably "too many" madrasahs in the country.
"Moreover, the level of teaching is low," Moldaliev complained. "Among those who teach, there are some literate people, but there are also those who do not understand [Islam], who are poorly educated."
The Abdiraim Kari madrasah, where 200 girls are taught and housed free of charge, is proud of its curriculum.
A girl studies the Koran at a madrasah in Osh Province.
Other than religious instruction, girls learn basic computing, including graphic design, sewing, handicrafts, and cooking, all over a three-year-period.
RFE/RL correspondents who recently gained access to the madrasah watched students fully attired in white hijabs and flowing black dresses smile and laugh as they competed in a game of volleyball refereed by a male cleric.
Mobile phones are prohibited except at weekends, both in the classroom and in the dormitory, with lights off at around 11.
"Before going to bed we read a prayer. And we teach the girls to sleep with their hands on their chest [after] saying the name of Allah," said Nazgul Ryskulova, who oversees the dormitory.
The diploma offered by madrasahs like Abdiraim Kari -- which qualifies graduates to teach "the fundamentals of Shari'a sciences" -- offers few prospects for employment aside from in religious schools.
It also has no value to secular universities, although the madrasah's founder, Abdirakhman Atabaev, says that some of his students do reach university after supplementing their religious training with classes at a nearby secular school.
'Signals' Received
When asked about financing, Atabaev offers few specifics, saying only that his institution is locally funded and has "no major sponsor." Local "aksakals" (elder males) and "zhigits" (young men) provided the most important contributions, he says.
A number of religious buildings in Kyrgyzstan have been built with funding from Persian Gulf states looking to expand their influence in the country, raising fears of brands of Islam other than the moderate Hanafi strain presaged by the Kyrgyzstan's Muftiate being imported into Kyrgyz society.
Others have been built by local politicians seeking to court influence among an Islam-hungry population.
Every so often, Kyrgyz security services report on raids targeting both licensed and "underground" madrasahs as well as closures and suspensions of licensed madrasahs.
In March, the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) reported on the bust of a boys madrasah where 12 children aged between 6 and 9 were taught “according to religious literature not verified by the [Muftiate].”
SEE ALSO: Kyrgyz Madrasah Principals To Lose LicensesThe man detained for organizing the classes did not have any religious education, the UKMK said, while many of the children did not attend regular school in parallel with the classes. The organizer was fined the equivalent of $85 but faced no jail time.
In 2023, the UKMK said it had shut down 21 Islamic schools in Osh Province over "violations of construction, sanitary and fire regulations, as well as [deviation from] uniform educational standards in religious schools."
Zamir Kozhomberdiev, a top official in the State Commission on Religious Affairs, says that those institutions have now reopened, having corrected their failings, and argues that the government does not need to change its approach to regulating the madrasahs.
"If...there are destructive calls or ideologies [in madrasahs], we will definitely receive such signals. Because the people working there are citizens of Kyrgyzstan, they are patriots and immediately speak openly if something is done differently. They themselves are against it," Kozhomberdiev said.
'Upbringing Hours'
This has not convinced critics of religious education, who see the madrasahs as operating with a relatively free hand.
Jamilya Kaparova, whose nonprofit Ensan-Diamond group attempts to monitor the activities of madrasahs, says that some madrashas are registered as private foreign-language-teaching institutions, with no reference to religion in their documents.
While teachers at some madrasahs claim that their courses are free as part of charitable work, students often say that they pay fixed fees every month, Kaparova says.
Kaparova echoes concerns about the content of courses. At one girls' madrasah that she visited, students participated in "upbringing hours."
“Mentors basically explained to the girls what kind of wives, daughters-in-law they should be, how to serve their husband's family," she said. "It seems to me that basically their upbringing comes down to this."
Concerns about Kyrgyzstan's national madrasah system were aired in a comprehensive 2019 report by the Geneva-based Bulan Institute, headed by the Kyrgyzstan-born expert Cholpon Orozbekova, which called for the system’s "urgent reformation.”"
But the Bulan Institute's main recommendations, which included the introduction of secular subjects into madrasahs, as well as teachers that have achieved both secular and theological degrees, have not been implemented to date.
A girl studies at the Sayida Khadijah madrasah.
Worries about the work of madrashas come from within the Islamic community, too.
Jamal Frontbek-kyzy, whose nonprofit Mutakallim group works regularly with communities of Islamic women, has called on madrasahs to include subjects like math, physics, and civics into their curricula, in order to better prepare their graduates for the outside world and make them less vulnerable to ultraconservative or extremist ideology.
"As part of one project, we introduced civics lessons in 12 madrasahs," said Frontbek-kyzy, whose organization regularly engages the government and has in the past received financing from Western donor organizations.
"But when the project stopped, some madrasahs continued to teach it, while others did not," she said.
One indicator that suggests girls' madrasahs may be failing in their collective missions at present is the high dropout rate.
According to the director of another madrasah in Osh, this one in the city itself, many students leave madrasahs before graduation, either to get married, or because they need to find work, or cannot make progress in classes.
"Our main goal was to raise girls who respect their parents. To raise pious souls, as well as mothers who will give this society good people who love their homeland," said Zhanara Maksutova, whose Sayida Khadijah school costs parents the equivalent of $350 per year in food, board, and classes.
But those students at Maksutova's madrasah who spoke to RFE/RL showed ambition to complete their studies.
"In the future, I would like to become an Arabic teacher," said one of her pupils, Makhbuba Abazova.
"Then, God willing, in two years, I will be a 'hafiz' [guardian of the Koran]."