Malala Yousafzai took on the Taliban.
As turbaned fighters swept through her town in NW Pakistan in 2009, the 11yr.old schoolgirl spoke about her passion for education - she wanted to become a doctor - and became a symbol of defiance against Taliban tyranny.
This week, big tough masked gunmen answered her courage with bullets. They singled out the now-14yr.old on a school bus, shooting her in the head and neck - two other girls were also wounded. All three survived, but doctors say Malala is in critical condition, with a bullet possibly lodged close to her brain.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed she had been the target (So tough! Such a hero!), calling her crusade for education rights an obscenity, adding that if she survived, they would certainly try to kill her again: "Let this be a lesson."
It most certainly IS. That a schoolgirl could be a threat to the Taliban, that they could see her death as desirable and justifiable, is a lesson about both these animals' brutality and her courage.
Malala's father ran one of the last schools in their district to defy Taliban orders to end female education. As an 11yr.old, Malala wrote an anonymous blog documenting her experiences for the BBC. Later, she was the focus of documentaries by New York Times and other media. The school was eventually forced to close but months later, in the summer of 2009, the Pakistani Army ousted the Taliban from the area. They fled into neighbouring districts or Afghanistan, and an uneasy peace settled over the Swat valley.
Malala Yousafzai became a powerful voice for children's rights. In 2011, she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. Later the prime minister awarded her Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.
Mature beyond her years, she recently changed her career aspiration to politics. She led a Unicef children's rights delegation, that made presentations to provincial politicians in Peshawar.
That such a figure of wide-eyed optimism and courage could be targeted by Taliban indicates the pathetically desperate levels they now stoop to, in order to impose violence.
As one social media commentator in Pakistan acerbically wrote: "Come on, brothers, be REAL MEN. Kill a schoolgirl."
A 14yr.old girl has bigger balls than all of those gutless pricks!
 |
| Brave Malala, scourge of the Taliban |
This week, big tough masked gunmen answered her courage with bullets. They singled out the now-14yr.old on a school bus, shooting her in the head and neck - two other girls were also wounded. All three survived, but doctors say Malala is in critical condition, with a bullet possibly lodged close to her brain.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed she had been the target (So tough! Such a hero!), calling her crusade for education rights an obscenity, adding that if she survived, they would certainly try to kill her again: "Let this be a lesson."
It most certainly IS. That a schoolgirl could be a threat to the Taliban, that they could see her death as desirable and justifiable, is a lesson about both these animals' brutality and her courage.
Malala's father ran one of the last schools in their district to defy Taliban orders to end female education. As an 11yr.old, Malala wrote an anonymous blog documenting her experiences for the BBC. Later, she was the focus of documentaries by New York Times and other media. The school was eventually forced to close but months later, in the summer of 2009, the Pakistani Army ousted the Taliban from the area. They fled into neighbouring districts or Afghanistan, and an uneasy peace settled over the Swat valley.
Malala Yousafzai became a powerful voice for children's rights. In 2011, she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. Later the prime minister awarded her Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.
Mature beyond her years, she recently changed her career aspiration to politics. She led a Unicef children's rights delegation, that made presentations to provincial politicians in Peshawar.
That such a figure of wide-eyed optimism and courage could be targeted by Taliban indicates the pathetically desperate levels they now stoop to, in order to impose violence.
As one social media commentator in Pakistan acerbically wrote: "Come on, brothers, be REAL MEN. Kill a schoolgirl."
A 14yr.old girl has bigger balls than all of those gutless pricks!
No comments:
Post a Comment