Malala : Back to school

EDITORIAL : Daily Times

For child activist Malala Yousafzai, Wednesday was a big day. After fighting a long, hard battle of recovery, the 15-year-old has attended school for the first time since the tragic shooting that left her critically wounded last year. Joining a school in Birmingham, UK, little Malala is back on her feet and a sure symbol for other girl children the world over that if a cause is worth being threatened and hurt for, then it is a cause worth pursuing. What bigger cause than to promote education in Pakistan, a country rife with war — a war that is being waged on the nation’s daughters who want nothing more than to go to school so that they make better lives for themselves? It is here that Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by militants in Swat for the crime of going to school and speaking out for girls’ education in the country. Her shooting jolted the nation out of its stupor and brought to light the real barbarity of the Taliban; anyone who can hurt a child is no less than a monster. Malala was flown to the UK for her recovery and, after months spent on a hospital bed, she has recuperated and has once again stepped foot in a school — her dream is coming true. However, Pakistan is full of Malalas: brave young girls defying the Taliban to receive an education. They have been issued threats and their schools have been blown to smithereens in the northern areas. How will they go to school? Where is their shot at a better life? The Taliban have left them with hardly any option other than to stay at home or study underground. Now that we will be seeing the arrival of an interim government until May, one wonders how the temporary set-up will look at this unaddressed issue. Chances are it will not, and the issue of female education will remain in the air for a while even with the post-elections government. However, there will be continuity in the security establishment and it is hoped that the security forces will be able to deal with this issue by preventing more schools from being blown up and more school girls from being shot. Any hiatus given to the Taliban to regroup and strengthen themselves will only allow them to expand their havoc and cause further mayhem. Malala did not take a bullet for that.