At least nine children died in a raging fire on the night of Sunday 3 March, 2013 in the Medina district of Dakar, Senegal. It was reported that a fire broke out while the children were sleeping in a crowded room at an Islamic school in the capital, and at least seven of the dead are thought to be ‘talibs’ (Quran students). Following the tragedy, several politicians reacted [fr] to the news, and in doing so, have highlighted just how tough the living conditions can be for talibs. Hady Ba [fr] explains, on his blog, what being a talib [fr] entails: Traditionnellement au Sénégal, les parents confiaient leurs enfants à des érudits pour qu’ils leur apprennent d’abord à mémoriser le Coran puis, au fur et à mesure qu’ils grandissent, les sciences religieuses. Durant les premières années de cet apprentissage, ces enfants ne sont pas nourris par le marabout auquel ils sont confiés mais par la communauté toute entière. Chacun de ces enfants a une écuelle et, trois fois par jour, ces élèves qui sont appelés talibés (oui, c’est la même racine arabe que taliban J) font le tour des maisons de la ville ou du village et reçoivent des poignées de nourritures qu’ils recueillent dans ces écuelles et mangent … Cette éducation était faite pour former des hommes stoïques se contentant de ce qu’ils ont, résistant à la faim et indifférents aux plaisirs de ce bas monde. Elle s’inscrivait dans une certaine vision du monde et dans un réseau social tel que toute la communauté se sentait responsable des enfants errants. In Senegal, parents would traditionally entrust the care of their children to scholars who would teach them to memorize the Quran and then, as the children grew older, theology. During the first few years of their studies, these children would not be fed by the marabout [translator's note: Quran teacher] to which they were assigned, but by the entire community. Each of these children had a bowl and, three times a day, these students – which are know as ‘talibs’ (yes, the word comes from the same Arabic root as ‘Taliban’) – would go from door to door among the houses of the town or the village, receiving handfuls of food that they would gather in their bowls to eat … The tradition was meant to be educational – it was intended to form stoic men who, content with what they have, would resist hunger and be indifferent to the pleasures of this base world. The tradition was based on a particular world-view and on social networks through which the the whole community felt responsible for the wandering children. Over the course of the last few decades, however, the hardships faced by the talibs have started to become excessive. In its article ‘La détresse des enfants talibés‘ [fr; translator's note: the plight of talib children], Sentinelles, a Swiss NGO, explains: Les talibés survivent dans des daaras (écoles coraniques), souvent des habitations de fortune, inachevées, sans eau ni électricité, où les enfants, en surnombre, privés d'hygiène et de soins, s'entassent pour dormir, généralement à même le sol ou parfois sur des nattes, les uns collés aux autres. Beaucoup de daaras fleurissent ainsi, avec à leur tête des marabouts recherchant plus des profits personnels que le bien-être des talibés, devenus pour eux une source de revenus. Ils sont à la merci de leur «maître» qui a tous les droits sur eux. Le sévices corporels violents sont courant durant l'enseignement religieux. Au Sénégal, à peu près n’importe quel musulman peut se dire marabout, et il n’existe aucune loi régissant les daaras, contrairement aux établissements scolaires. Les marabouts sont vénérés et jouissent d’un véritable pouvoir sur la population. The talib survive in the daaras (Quran schools) – often unfinished, makeshift shelters, without water or electricity, where children, deprived of hygiene and basic care, crowd together to sleep, usually on the floor or sometimes on mats, each child pressed up against the next. Many daaras thrive in this way – under the management of marabouts who are more concerned with their own profits than the talibs’ welfare, the students having become a source of income for their teachers. The talibs are at the mercy of these “masters”, who may do with them what they please – violent beatings are common during a talib's religious education. In Senegal, nearly any Muslim can become a marabout, and – in contrast to other types of schools – there is no law governing the daaras. The marabouts are revered and enjoy very real power over the population. In response to this tragedy, the government has given instructions on the immediate banning of the practice of begging, believing that at the heart of the problem lies the exploitation of children by organized begging.