Inside Pakistan's seminaries

AP photographer Muhammed Muheisen set out to put a human face to the controversy surrounding seminaries

Often labelled as breeding grounds for terrorism, seminaries across Pakistan increasingly find themselves under the scrutinising purview of security agencies and pressure from the government to comply with new policies.

One photographer, however, set out to put a human face to the controversy. Muhammed Muheisen of AP intends to show what Pakistani seminaries embroiled in this debate look like from the inside.



Students at a seminary in Rawalpindi attend a class on a Sunday morning in January 2015.

 



Lecturers at a Rawalpindi seminary talk outside a classroom, while students attend a class.

 



Internally displaced children from tribal areas attend a seminary set up in a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad.

 



Most of these seminaries provide food and housing along with religious education, and accept students from around the country. Many of them admit both male and female students.

 



A seminary student sits on his bed rehearsing for his exam in the seminary dorms.

 



Seminary students splash water on the ground as they clean the seminary dorms.

 



A student uses tweezers to groom his beard in the seminary dorm.

 



Students play football in their seminary's yard as the sun sets.

 



Afghan refugees and internally displaced Pakistani children from tribal areas gather in a under-construction mosque.

 



Seminary students sleep on the floor of their dorm.

 



A seminary student looks outside the window of his dormitory.

 



Seminary students have lunch.

 



A student sits on a spot of light as he is wrapped in a shawl to warm himself while reading verses of the Quran prior to a class.

 



A boy washes himself before joining other internally displaced Pakistani children from tribal areas attending the seminary set up in a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad.