Shot Pakistan schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai addresses UN

Bedah.Cun

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban, has told the UN that books and pens scare extremists, as she urged education for all.

        Speaking on her 16th birthday, Malala said efforts to silence her had failed.
        She was shot in the head on a school bus by Taliban gunmen because of her campaign for girls' rights.
        The speech at the UN headquarters in New York was her first public address since last October's incident in Pakistan's north-western Swat valley.
        Malala has been credited with bringing the issue of women's education to global attention. A quarter of young women around the world have not completed primary school.
  'Afraid of women'              After the shooting, Malala was flown from Pakistan to the UK for treatment, and now lives in Birmingham, England.
         
                At the scene                                        Rajini Vaidyanathan        BBC News, UN       
                     
There were huge cheers when Malala Yousefzai took to the podium. A few months ago, such a moment might have seemed unimaginable. Her speech, to more than 500 young people aged 12-25 from around the world, was delivered with grace and compassion.
        Malala may be the focus and inspiration behind today's events, but she hopes her message will highlight the challenges millions of her contemporaries face.  Many here say she's their inspiration.
        There is a buzz of excitement at the UN. Corridors and chambers normally filled with sharp-suited diplomats have, for one day at least, been taken over by teenagers. It's Malala's story and incredible recovery from her attack that have brought the issue of universal education to greater global attention. The challenge is to keep up the momentum to make a real change.
                 
      

Amid several standing ovations, Malala told the UN on Friday that the Taliban's attack had only made her more resolute.

        "The terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambitions," she said, "but nothing changed in my life, except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born."
        She continued: "I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists and extremists."
        Malala - who is considered a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize - said she was fighting for the rights of women because "they are the ones who suffer the most".
        "The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens," added Malala, who was wearing a pink shawl that belonged to assassinated Pakistan leader Benazir Bhutto. "They are afraid of women."
        She called on politicians to take urgent action to ensure every child has the right to go to school.

Latest figures show Pakistan has the second highest number of children out of school in the world.                                          "Let us pick up our books and pens," Malala summed up. "They are our most powerful weapons.
        "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first."
        A passionate campaigner for female education, Malala addressed more than 500 students at a specially convened youth assembly.
        UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also addressed Friday's session, calling Malala "our hero".
        The schoolgirl, who set up the Malala Fund following the attack, presented a petition of more than three million signatures to the UN secretary general demanding education for all.
  
      

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened the session, telling the youths gathered they were a "new superpower" in the world, and appealing to them to help overcome obstacles to accessing education.

        The event, described by the UN as Malala Day, was organised by Mr Brown, now the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.
        He said: "Getting every girl and boy into school by 2015 is achievable.
        "Malala says it is possible - and young people all over the world think it is possible," he said.
        Aid agencies say that female access to education in Pakistan is a particular problem.
        
They say that the country ranks among the lowest in terms of girls' education enrolment, literacy and government spending.
        Unesco and Save the Children released a special reported ahead of Malala's speech.
        It found that 95% of the 28.5 million children who are not getting a primary school education live in low and lower-middle income countries: 44% in sub-Saharan Africa, 19% in south and west Asia and 14% in the Arab states.
        Girls make up 55% of the total and are often the victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompanies armed conflicts.

Jahat sangat macam setan, kaum wanita sering dianiaya oleh orang bermuka2 di dunia akhir zaman ni!!!!! Kesian budak ni kepale die bocor kena tembak, Bedah nak carutkan diorang dasar jantan takde telo faggot!

Bedah.Cun

Taliban's letter to Malala Yousafzai: this is why we tried to kill you
A senior member of the Pakistani Taliban has written an open letter to Malala Yousafzai – the teenager shot in the head as she rode home on a school bus – expressing regret that he didn't warn her before the attack, but claiming that she was targeted for maligning the insurgents.Adnan Rasheed, who was convicted for his role in a 2003 assassination attempt on the country's then-president Pervez Musharraf, did not apologise for the attack, which left Malala gravely wounded, but said he found it shocking.

"I wished it would never happened [sic] and I had advised you before," he wrote.
Malala was 15 when she and two classmates were targeted by a masked gunman who picked them out on a school bus as they went home from school in Pakistan's northwest Swat valley last October.

She was seriously injured in the attack, and was flown to Britain to receive specialist treatment from doctors in Birmingham, where she and her family now live.
Last week, she celebrated her 16th birthday by delivering a defiant speech at the United Nations in New York, in which she called on world leaders to provide free schooling for all children.
In the letter, Rasheed claimed that Malala was not targeted for her efforts to promote education, but because the Taliban believed she was running a "smearing campaign" against it.

"You have said in your speech yesterday that pen is mightier than sword," Rasheed wrote, referring to Malala's UN speech, "so they attacked you for your sword not for your books or school."

The rambling four-page letter, in patchy English, citing Bertrand Russell, Henry Kissinger and historian Thomas Macaulay, was released to media organisations in Pakistan.
In it, Rasheed – a former member of Pakistan's air force, who was among 300 prisoners to escape jail in April last year – advises Malala to return to Pakistan, join a female Islamic seminary and advocate the cause of Islam.

He admitted that the Taliban are "blowing up" schools, but justified the attacks on the grounds that the Pakistani army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps use schools as hideouts.

Hundreds of schools have been targeted in Pakistan's north-west: activists say some had been used by the military, but many attacks were motivated by the Taliban's opposition to girls' education.

The Taliban commander also justified recent attacks in Pakistan on health workers vaccinating children against polio by claiming the west was trying to sterilise Muslims.
The letter is clearly intended to influence opinion in Pakistan: although in much of the world Malala has been hailed as a symbol of courage, at home she has been the subject of intense criticism and vilification. Online commentators have described her as a "drama queen" and even accused her of spying for the CIA.
Rasheed contrasted international support for Malala with the lack of coverage given to those killed in US drone attacks – a source of intense grievance in Pakistan.

"If you were shot [by] Americans in a drone attack, would [the] world have ever heard updates on your medical status? … Would you were called to UN? Would a Malala day be announced?"

Gordon Brown, now a UN special envoy on global education, said: "Nobody will believe a word the Taliban say about the right of girls like Malala to go to school until they stop burning down schools and stop massacring pupils." - The Guardian
   

SulurBidar

Aku menentang sebarang usaha utk menggerakkan Islam ala-Taliban di Malaysia...

Bedah.Cun

Tak suke diorang ni semua

toksira

She delivered the speech very fluently....well done Malala

Bedah.Cun

toksira posted on 25-7-2013 06:00 AM
She delivered the speech very fluently....well done Malala

Kann, nampak die bersungguh2 nak belajar. Dalam bersusah payah pun masih mampu buat yang terbaik. Bedah bangga sangat dengan budak ni. Simpati dengan die sebab makhluk2 tongong tu aniaya die, wangi la sangat Islam sebab perbuatan diorang tu padahal diorang menghina Islam dengan menindas insan2 lemah

DARSITA

Nice one -> "If you were shot [by] Americans in a drone attack, would [the] world have ever heard updates on your medical status? … Would you were called to UN? Would a Malala day be announced?"

toksira

DARSITA posted on 26-7-2013 02:11 AM
Nice one -> "If you were shot  Americans in a drone attack, would [the] world have ever heard update ...

A thought to ponder....