A Day for All Girls, A Day for Malala  :: News

Today, on the first United Nation’s International Day of the Girl Child, the world’s thoughts are with Malala Yousufzai, the 14 year-old Pakistani schoolgirl and activist who was shot Tuesday in the Swat Valley. Taliban gunmen have claimed responsibility for the attack, citing her campaigning for girl’s rights to education as an “obscenity.” Two additional schoolgirls were also injured in the attack.

SWAT Girl

In 2008, the Taliban ordered the closure of all girls’ schools in the district of Swat in the then North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan (now Khyber Pakhtunkwa) and destroyed over a 100 girls’ schools in Swat. At that time, Equality Now attempted to bring a class action on behalf of Swati girls to establish the right to education, but neither law enforcement, prosecutors nor lawyers were willing to take a stand in the face of personal threats from violent extremists.

Malala Yousufzai, at the age of 10, refused to have her voice silenced and became a national icon of courage and hope. By the age of 11, she was awarded Pakistan’s first National Peace Prize.

Four years later, she lays in a hospital bed in critical condition fighting for her life. There has been a global outpouring of sympathy and support. As one reader of a Pakistani paper commented, “Malala isn’t a name, it’s an ideology that can never be killed.”

As the Global Director of Equality Now, I have had the honor to work with courageous girls around the world, who have braved all odds to challenge their treatment and denial of rights so that the world can be a better place for other girls. The courage and determination of 13-year-old Mary, who took on the Zambian government for refusing to take action when her eighth grade teacher raped her; of 11-year old Wafa who defied Yemeni traditions and walked out of a child marriage; of 15-year-old Mariam, who brought her father who had raped her to justice despite the immense stigma against sexual violence in Pakistan; and 13-year-old Makeda who continues to fight the Ethiopian government for mismanaging her case of rape, abduction and forced marriage are a few examples. These girls are teaching the world new ways of thinking about gender, discrimination and opportunity. It is our job to listen.

Adolescent girls are disproportionately vulnerable to human rights abuses that can have severe and long-lasting consequences and impact their potential as women. In 2008, we created the Adolescent Girls’ Legal Defense Fund (AGLDF) to address the most common forms of gender-based violence, ensure legal systems protect girls and deter perpetrators from violating their rights. In collaboration with local partners, we have taken on cases of child marriage, female genital mutilation, sex tourism, rape and incest in the effort to elevate the voices of girls around the world and reshape the rule of law.

By mounting international pressure on governments, enabling victims to access justice, providing girls with supportive environments to discuss gender violence and discrimination and establishing legal precedents to prevent and better address future violations of their rights, these girls have become inspirations in their homes, schools and communities. It is my hope that Malala’s struggle will be a watershed moment for women and girls’ rights in Pakistan.

Going forward, the International Day of the Girl will be a day of advocacy and action, by and for girls, to highlight, foster discussion and advance girls’ lives and opportunities across the globe. We all need to support and honor girls who have the courage to come forward and demand their rights so that they can become equal and active members of society. Today, we celebrate them and reinforce our commitment to make equality and justice a reality for all girls.

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Attack On Pakistani Teen Activist(Malala) Sparks Outrage   :: News

ISLAMABAD — Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group.

A wounded Pakistani girl, Malala Yousufzai, is moved to a helicopter to be taken to Peshawar for treatment in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)

The shooting of Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley horrified Pakistanis across the religious, political and ethnic spectrum. Many in the country hoped the attack and the outrage it has sparked will be a turning point in Pakistan’s long-running battle against the Taliban, which still enjoys considerable public support for fighting U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Top U.S. officials condemned the attack and offered to help the girl.

A Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded. Pictures of the vehicle showed bloodstained seats where the girls were sitting.

Malala appeared to be out of immediate danger after doctors operated on her early Wednesday to remove a bullet lodged in her neck. But she remained in intensive care at a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar, and Pakistan’s Interior Minister said the next 48 hours would be crucial.

Small rallies and prayer sessions were held for her in Mingora, the eastern city of Lahore, the southern port city of Karachi and the capital of Islamabad. In newspapers, on TV and in social media forums, Pakistanis voiced their disgust with the attack, and expressed their admiration for a girl who spoke out against the Taliban when few dared.

Even the country’s top military officer – a man who rarely makes public statements – condemned the shooting and visited the Peshawar hospital to check on the teenager.

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“In attacking Malala, the terrorist have failed to grasp that she is not only an individual, but an icon of courage and hope who vindicates the great sacrifices that the people of Swat and the nation gave, for wresting the valley from the scourge of terrorism,” Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said in a statement.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said US officials “strongly condemn” the shooting and called it “barbaric” and “cowardly.”

He said U.S. has offered any assistance to Malala, mentioning possible air ambulance transport to a facility suitable for her treatment if it becomes necessary.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised the young Pakistani girl.

“She was attacked and shot by extremists who don’t want girls to have an education and don’t want girls to speak for themselves, and don’t want girls to become leaders,” she said.

Pakistani women, hold banners during a protest condemning the attack on schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. Pakistani doctors successfully removed a bullet Wednesday from the neck of a 14-year-old girl who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out in support of education for women, a government minister said. Banner top right reads, ” The Taliban is afraid of an unarmed girl.”(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack on Malala, calling it a “heinous and cowardly act,” U.N. spokesman Nartin Nesirky said.

Malala is admired across Pakistan for exposing the Taliban’s atrocities and advocating girls’ education in the face of religious extremism.

At the age of 11, she began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC about life under the Taliban in the Swat Valley. After the military ousted the militants in 2009, she began publicly speaking out about the need for girls’ education, something the Taliban strongly opposes.

The group claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, vowed to target her again.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said authorities have identified her attackers and know how they got into the valley, but no arrests have been made.

The news that surgeons were able to remove a bullet lodged in Malala’s neck was greeted with relief by many. But even with such an outpouring of grief and outrage in Pakistan over the young girl’s shooting, it was unclear whether it would indeed trigger a shift in public opinion against the Taliban.

Many in Pakistan view the group as waging a noble fight against U.S. troops that invaded another Muslim country, Afghanistan, and they argue that the Taliban problem within Pakistan will fade once American forces leave. They argue that Taliban attacks against targets in Pakistan aim to punish the government in Islamabad for its alliance with Washington.

“Pakistan society is polarized on who is doing terrorism,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a political analyst in Lahore. He said that divide has been evident even in the public condemnations of the attack, with some people speaking out strongly against the Taliban while others have criticized the government for failing to protect Malala.

Pakistani protestors rally to condemn the attack on schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai in Peshawar, Pakistan on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/ Mohammad Sajjad)

Omar R. Quraishi, the editorial pages editor at Pakistan’s English-language Express Tribune newspaper, questioned whether the public outrage had reached such a critical mass that it would indeed mark a turning point.

He said Kayani’s strong statement in support of the girl may be an attempt to gauge whether there is enough public outrage to support a sharp response from the army against the Taliban. The general, said Quraishi, doesn’t want to be in a position where people are asking: “Why are you fighting America’s wars?”

The Pakistani military has been waging a deadly fight in the tribal regions against militants at a cost of about 4,000 soldiers killed. But critics, especially in the U.S., accuse the army of going after militants that attack the Pakistani state while cultivating others that it feels will be useful someday in Afghanistan.

Still, there is a precedent in Pakistan of Taliban excesses provoking public outrage, which the military has then capitalized on to move against the militants.

In 2009, after a video surfaced of militants publicly whipping a woman, purportedly in the Swat Valley, triggered a wave of public revulsion, the army felt empowered enough to launch a major offensive against the Taliban in the area. Government forces flushed the militants out of the scenic valley, but failed to capture or kill the movement’s senior leaders.

ADMIN COMMENTS : as a Muslim I Condemn the acts done by Talibans, Islam orders to educate both  man and woman. Allah swt made women as our Companions,not slaves. they have full right to get education. .Even the salves can get education.read What prophet[pbuh] said about education .

Get up sister Malala , Our Duas are with you.. may Allah protect you from harm and grant you victory over those who r oppressing your community !

Ameen

Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/malala-yousufzai-pakistan-shooting-taliban_n_1953872.html

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