Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban for fighting for girls’ education, will address the United Nations today.
The speech will be her first public appearance since the attack in October 2012. Malala, who won Index on Censorship and Doughty Street chambers Advocacy award this year, was shot in the head and chest by an unknown assailant while she was on her way home from school. The Pakistani Taliban spokesman took responsibility for the attack, saying that the young girl was “anti-Taliban and secular”.
Watch Malala’s speech live here:
At 11, Malala began blogging anonymously for BBC Urdu about living in Swat, a Taliban-controlled district in Pakistan. She eventually became an outspoken advocate for girls’ education, and brought international attention to the importance of education for children. Since her attack, she has established the Malala Fund, an organisation that demands education for all.
UNESCO has called the right to education a “fundamental human right”, that serves as a foundation for all other rights, including freedom of expression. With 200 million children denied the basic right to an education around the world, Malala’s fight is important now more than ever.
Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, accepted the Index award on his daughter’s behalf saying: “I want to give a message to the world. I didn’t do anything special. As a father, I did one thing, I gave her the right of freedom of expression. All fathers and mothers, give your daughters and sons freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is a most important right. The solution of any conflict is to say the right thing, to speak the truth.”
Listen to what Malala’s father had to say at this year’s Index awards:
Two journalists were among 50 people killed by suicide bombers on December 6. Abdul Wanab, from Express News and Pervez Khan Waqt TV died and a third journalist Mohib Ali was injured in the attack on an administrative building in the town of Ghanalai, on the border with Afghanistan. The journalists were covering a peace jirga in which local government officials and tribal elders were discussing an anti-Taliban strategy.
It’s reassuring that defence secretary Liam Fox isn’t very busy. In spite of an ongoing war, massive budget cuts, and the threat of resurgent violent republican groups in Northern Ireland, Fox obviously has plenty of time on his hands to talk about computer games.
What’s less reassuring is that when Fox does talk about computer games, he comes up with an opinion as silly and nonsensical as calling for a game to be banned.
Fox thinks war game Medal Of Honour should not be stocked in shops, cos you can play as the Taliban as well as playing as Nato forces.
“It’s shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban. At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands. I am disgusted and angry. It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.”
Does Fox really think that soldiers in Afghanistan are weeping themselves to sleep at night due of the thought that someone might be playing the baddies in a computer game? Does he think that Medal Of Honour might encourage young people to join the Taliban? Did Fox only ever play Escape From Colditz as the British? Was Buckaroo banned from his house because it endorsed animal cruelty? And how pathetic is this attempt to curry favour with the military shortly before he starts sacking people?
Film-maker Asad Qureshi and his fixer Colonel Iman were released last Thursday after being held captive by the Pakistani Taliban for over a month. Khalid Khwaja, the other member of their party was found dead on 30 April in North Waziristan. The two men were been handed over to the Haqqani network, an independent negotiations team who have close links with the Taliban. No ransom money has been paid.
