The United Nations General Assembly last year adopted a resolution to designate Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. The day will also promote equal treatment and opportunities for girls around the world in areas such as law, nutrition, health care, education, training and freedom from violence and abuse.
But now in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai, a 14-old-girl is fighting for her life after being shot in the head by Taleban gunmen. What wrong did this innocent girl do to face this “capital punishment” from those who think that they are the people who practice “perfect Islam”? She went to school in search of knowledge, the knowledge our Prophet (peace be upon him) asked all his followers to seek. Strangely, it is denied in Swat.
We were really touched by what Malala has recorded in her diary, way back in 2009, when she was only an 11-year-old girl, it reads: “I felt hurt opening my ward robe and seeing my uniform, school bag and geometry box. Boys’ schools are opening tomorrow. But the Taleban have banned girls’ education.” According to doctors she is still not out of danger. While millions in Pakistan are praying for her recovery, the barbaric Taleban arrogantly have warned that they will somehow or other will get her. Taleban’s Fazlullah has also threatened to kill Malala’s father too. A killer unit of Taleban has announced that the headmaster of a girls’ school is also on its hit list.
Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now the UN special envoy for global education, has said that Malala had become an icon for courage and hope for more than 30 million girls worldwide who are denied primary schooling.
May God bless her with full and speedy recovery to accomplish her mission, for the benefit of other young girls who are deprived of education in Pakistan by the brutal Taleban! — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh
