Dear Editor,
The deliberate shooting of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, in Pakistan's beautiful Swat Valley in October, has raised grave concerns throughout the world. This attack distressed the Swat Valley people, who had been caught in a battle of the Pakistani military against the Taliban forces. The battle was at first won when the military defeated and chased the Taliban out of Swat; then they crept back cautiously and began terrorising the people of the valley. The military decided to engage them once again in the summer, stating there would be no compromise.
It's been reported the Taliban remained in Pakistan favoured by some politicians who saw them as protection against American and other Western forces. Yet the civilian government wants them out. It is strange, but at the time of the shooting, Malala was 10 minutes away from the army's brigade headquarters, with none of the military police on bicycles nearby.
It seems a Taliban gunman went into her school bus asking, "Where is Malala?" She was not wearing her veil, and with many of her school friends around her, she answered: "I am Malala." He fired one shot with his gun, and it went into her brain. Two of her friends tried to assist and received gunshot wounds to their hands.
The bus driver realised what was happening, so he drove Malala to the hospital right away. From the military hospital in Peshawar, she was flown to a military hospital in Rawalpindi, which is the garrison hospital of that city. She was in a medically induced coma. Then she was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where she underwent further medical treatment leading to improvement in her condition. Dr David Rosser, medical director of the hospital, said Malala had the "potential" for a full recovery.
The European Parliament, while criticising the Pakistani government for human rights abuses, said: "A 14-year-old girl said something that the Taliban strongly oppose and apparently became the reason for the attack. It was: "Girls also deserve a right to an education."
This recalls the tragedy of the five women who were raped several weeks ago in St James. One of them, a young girl, vowed to leave Jamaica. In the past two months, there have been many incidents of girls and young women being molested on their way to school or work. Some remain missing, a few have been murdered; all who survived were seriously traumatised.
In poor countries, the law does not single out cases of young women, yet these are our productive future, and also represent the finest minds in our educational plans.
Member of the European Parliament Charles Bannock said during a debate: "This is more than just the case of the shooting of one brave girl, but a crisis for the entire Pakistani and developing world's education systems."
He said that the people who seek to harm children are nothing but "cowards who fear the rise of their voice".
The Taliban continued its threats: "We will do the same, if Malala returns, and with every girl student, if we are to be stood up to."
Malala's father replied: "When she fell, Pakistan stood. No, we will never be quiet and stand in the back; like our fathers and forefathers, we continue to stand up for what is right and what is fair. Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience."
Mr Gordon Brown, the UN's special envoy on education and former prime minister of Britain, has undertaken the project that will end the lack of education among girls worldwide by 2015, and has urged all nations to unilaterally sustain a child's right to education, and to mark November 10 as Malala Day.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon extended his support to the young girl and her fight for education, describing her as the global symbol of every girl's right to an education. Hereafter, November 10 will commemorate 32 million girls around the world, like Malala, who are being denied the to attend school.
Ramesh Sujanani
rsujanani78@gmail.com
The rights of children
-->
The deliberate shooting of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, in Pakistan's beautiful Swat Valley in October, has raised grave concerns throughout the world. This attack distressed the Swat Valley people, who had been caught in a battle of the Pakistani military against the Taliban forces. The battle was at first won when the military defeated and chased the Taliban out of Swat; then they crept back cautiously and began terrorising the people of the valley. The military decided to engage them once again in the summer, stating there would be no compromise.
It's been reported the Taliban remained in Pakistan favoured by some politicians who saw them as protection against American and other Western forces. Yet the civilian government wants them out. It is strange, but at the time of the shooting, Malala was 10 minutes away from the army's brigade headquarters, with none of the military police on bicycles nearby.
It seems a Taliban gunman went into her school bus asking, "Where is Malala?" She was not wearing her veil, and with many of her school friends around her, she answered: "I am Malala." He fired one shot with his gun, and it went into her brain. Two of her friends tried to assist and received gunshot wounds to their hands.
The bus driver realised what was happening, so he drove Malala to the hospital right away. From the military hospital in Peshawar, she was flown to a military hospital in Rawalpindi, which is the garrison hospital of that city. She was in a medically induced coma. Then she was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where she underwent further medical treatment leading to improvement in her condition. Dr David Rosser, medical director of the hospital, said Malala had the "potential" for a full recovery.
The European Parliament, while criticising the Pakistani government for human rights abuses, said: "A 14-year-old girl said something that the Taliban strongly oppose and apparently became the reason for the attack. It was: "Girls also deserve a right to an education."
This recalls the tragedy of the five women who were raped several weeks ago in St James. One of them, a young girl, vowed to leave Jamaica. In the past two months, there have been many incidents of girls and young women being molested on their way to school or work. Some remain missing, a few have been murdered; all who survived were seriously traumatised.
In poor countries, the law does not single out cases of young women, yet these are our productive future, and also represent the finest minds in our educational plans.
Member of the European Parliament Charles Bannock said during a debate: "This is more than just the case of the shooting of one brave girl, but a crisis for the entire Pakistani and developing world's education systems."
He said that the people who seek to harm children are nothing but "cowards who fear the rise of their voice".
The Taliban continued its threats: "We will do the same, if Malala returns, and with every girl student, if we are to be stood up to."
Malala's father replied: "When she fell, Pakistan stood. No, we will never be quiet and stand in the back; like our fathers and forefathers, we continue to stand up for what is right and what is fair. Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience."
Mr Gordon Brown, the UN's special envoy on education and former prime minister of Britain, has undertaken the project that will end the lack of education among girls worldwide by 2015, and has urged all nations to unilaterally sustain a child's right to education, and to mark November 10 as Malala Day.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon extended his support to the young girl and her fight for education, describing her as the global symbol of every girl's right to an education. Hereafter, November 10 will commemorate 32 million girls around the world, like Malala, who are being denied the to attend school.
Ramesh Sujanani
rsujanani78@gmail.com
The rights of children
-->