Being Malala- Part III

Part-III

Followed by the documentary of The New York Times, she was interviewed by many newspapers and radio stations like AVT Khyber, a national Pasto-language station, the Urdu Language Newspaper, Daily Aaj,  and Canada’s Toronto Star. By now she was emerging as an activist fighting for female education. On 19^th August 2009, she made her second appearance on Capital Talk, and her blogging identity was also revealed. She was actively speaking for female education on television and radio channels, from a place which was under the threat of militants. She belonged to a place where most of the people were illiterate, and those who were literate were mainly men. Only a very small chunk of females was getting the opportunity to study and in this worst scenario, this opportunity was also fading away. This young woman turned out to fight for her rights to get educated.

Though she was getting name and fame for her protests for female education, it was at the cost of her life. The family was threatened for their protests and public appearances. 2 months later, in October 2009, this little girl was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Award by Kids Rights Foundation. She became the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for this award. The award was though won by Michaela Mycroft of South Africa, this girl is now known all over the world for her courage and protest for women’s education. The announcement for her was as “she dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to go to school.” Later in the month of December, she was awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize, by the Prime Minister of the country. In her speech, she mentioned that though she is not a member of any political party, in the future, she would like to have her own national party, with an aim of promoting education. Her efforts for women’s education were showing results, the Prime Minister of Pakistan  at her request, ordered for setting up an IT Campus in the Swat Degree College for Women.

By 2012, she was planning to organize an education foundation, which would help poor girls to attend school. She was rising like a star from a small village in the Swat valley, but this recognition was generating more dangers for her. The situation of women in Pakistan is not hidden and in the Swat valley, it's pathetic.  The sort of work she was doing for improving women’s education in the valley, could not be borne by the  extremists. She was continuously getting death threats to stop her activities. Fake profiles in her name were created in the social media by the Taliban militants. But she didn’t stop. Then in 2012, Taliban leaders unanimously  decided to kill her.


To be continued....
Do read, share, subscribe and pls share your views