Pakistan: Why Is A Little Girl Shot for Wanting Education?

My message is to those who believe females are less than males and not economically viable.  In truth they are equal and become the source of love in all families. Who do children run to when they are hurt?  They run to their mothers.  What of the son’s mother, how does he feel about his mother?  Daughters, Mothers and Grandmothers are all girls and are the ones who hold communities together and protect nonviolently their families.  How is it that they can be regarded as less when they do so much out of love.  In western society women work, are educated and increasingly the bread winners of families and the central person raising children.  To take from female children the right to formal education will definitely stunt a society in many ways it also breaks the heart of the child.   

In this article a girl (who could be me) is shot for wanting a right to education.  My question is – what would love do?  Is god love or fear?  We are given free will, if you were a girl what would you choose?  If you were a compassionate society filled with mercy, what would your society choose? 

Gender equality will happen, it is a matter of time.  Women are making it happen as they are waking up to their own equality, hence the actions of the young girl.  I travelled the World and the young people are all watching television and seeing the changing norms of society.    They are becoming a global youth.  That was one positive outcome of globalisation.  

In Australia we have a female Prime Minister, had this country not educated girls, she would never have had the opportunity to demonstrate that equality.  Currently, sexism is being raised in the Australian Parliament, women are still seeking a level playing field, but at least they are playing in a contextual field that is changing in their favour.  This challenge is given the patriarchal power structures that have been traditionally male dominated but that rule is coming to an end as we see life supports on our planet collapsing.  Women have always been the bringers of life and life supports in society, the collapse of our planet, in my view, is linked to the inequality of men and women.

The voice of women tends to express compassion, emotions, sharing, caring, children and practical matters. With this voice missing or minimised in governance men are unable to see the other half of the picture. The differences between men and women were for a reason, they provided different perspectives in which to see the world. One was more structured and logical, the other more feeling, universal and emotional. Women will be the ones to point out to men what they are not seeing or indeed feeling, they show them what is unseen what they are unaware of. I am sure many men would vouch for this. I sense men feel weak around women rather than see it as a difference to be celebrated, I sense this fear of incompleteness is unspoken. I feel it is this denial in some men to face themselves that manifests into the unconscious desire to suppress females and the part of themselves that feels or nurtures, they believe this to be a weakness yet it is their true nature. I see this clearly reflected in the man made world that has been created.

I feel together women and men can see the big picture clearly but separately there is a serious blindspot and imbalance not only between the sexes but impacting the planet itself, as we are part of the nature. If nature is unbalanced we suffer. If we suffer nature is unbalanced.

I’ve met many men who are changing, who see themselves as equal with their mates. I have met other men who see women as their equals and wouldn’t even consider a woman as less. I met one last night who said that mum and dad was one word. They raised their children together as a team. I met another who spent the first 3 months of his baby’s life nurturing the baby whilst his mate recovered from child birth. He said the bonding to his child and placing the mother at the centre created a deeply bonded family and tribe. It created stability and happiness. Another man I met believed in loving both men and women expressing it through embrace and respect, he looked through universal eyes. I have seen men carrying their babies on their backs or fronts, others with prams walking or jogging. Other men are opting to stay home with children whilst women work. I hear younger men and women consulting each other, there is no dominant partner, they are working it out together and admitting when they are wrong and being a true friend. My husband was one of these men he and I shared all housework equally, we did the shopping equally and did the washing. We made joint decisions and never dominated each other, it was a relationship built on equality, freedom and respect. We worked together and never did the thought of gender enter our relationship. We were best friends. We did not have roles. I actually forgot I was female. This is true equality. The roles are definitely changing as men realise they are not their role, they are desiring to do what makes them happy, equality makes them happy.

To shoot a child desiring to learn is not god’s love. Only a lack of education could advocate for this type of behaviour. In truth it is an argument for universal education.

Natural selection of this species favours balance and equality between the genders. The empowerment of girls is essential to the survival of the planet and human happiness. I feel it clearly.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/15075433/pakistan-child-rights-activist-shot-in-head-doctors/

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – The Pakistani Taliban shot a teenage children’s rights activist in the head on her school bus to avenge her campaigns for the right to an education in the militants’ former stronghold of Swat.

Many in Pakistan reacted with shock and revulsion to the shooting on Tuesday of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was flown to intensive care in the northwestern city of Peshawar where doctors are struggling to save her life.

Police said two other girls were also wounded in the attack on Malala’s school bus, which the Taliban claimed, saying anyone who spoke out against them would suffer a similar fate.

A team of senior doctors late Tuesday completed her medical examination in a combined military hospital (CMH) and described her condition as critical.

“We have thoroughly examined her, she is in critical condition. The bullet travelled from her head and then lodged in the back shoulder, near the neck,” a doctor in the CMH told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media.

“She is in the intensive care unit and semi-conscious, although not on the ventilator,” he said, adding that the next three to four days would be crucial.

Earlier another doctor in Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Swat’s main town of Mingora had said the bullet penetrated her skull but missed her brain, leaving her out of danger.

Malala won international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat with a blog for the BBC three years ago, when the Islamist militants led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah burned girls’ schools and terrorised the valley.

Her struggle resonated with tens of thousands of girls who were being denied an education by Islamist militants across northwest Pakistan, where the government has been fighting local Taliban since 2007.

She received the first-ever national peace award from the Pakistani government last year, and was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by advocacy group KidsRights Foundation in 2011.

Tuesday’s shooting in broad daylight in Mingora raises serious questions about security more than three years after the army claimed to have crushed a Taliban insurgency.

Police accounts of the attack changed during the day. Initially, an officer told AFP Malala was shot as she was getting on the bus, then later that a gunman had flagged down the vehicle some distance away.

“One of them, who had a small beard, went inside and asked the children which was Malala,” Shah told AFP.

“He fired three shots. One bullet hit Malala’s head. The second hit the shoulder of her school friend and the third inflicted a minor leg injury to another girl on the bus,” the policeman added.

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP the Islamist group carried out the attack after repeatedly warning Malala to stop speaking out against them.

“She is a Western-minded girl. She always speaks against us. We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“We warned her several times to stop speaking against the Taliban and to stop supporting Western NGOs, and to come to the path of Islam.”

The Taliban controlled much of Swat from 2007-2009 but were supposedly driven out by an army offensive in July 2009.

President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the attack, but said it would not shake Pakistan’s resolve to fight Islamist militants or the government’s determination to support women’s education.

The United States denounced the “barbaric” and “cowardly” attack.

“Directing violence at children is barbaric, it’s cowardly, and our hearts go out to her and the others who were wounded, as well as their families,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

London-based rights group Amnesty International condemned the “shocking act of violence” against a girl bravely fighting for an education.

“This attack highlights the extremely dangerous climate human rights activists face in northwestern Pakistan, where particularly female activists live under constant threats from the Taliban and other militant groups,” it said.

Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said Malala had been targeted as “an icon of peace”, calling for a sweeping military offensive against all Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan.

Malala was 11 when she wrote the blog on the BBC Urdu website, which at the time was anonymous. She also featured in two New York Times documentaries.

In a 2011 BBC news report she read out an extract of her diary that gave a sense of the fear she endured under the Taliban.

“I was very much scared because the Taliban announced yesterday that girls should stop going to schools.

“Today our head teacher told the school assembly that school uniform is no longer compulsory and from tomorrow onwards, girls should come in their normal dresses. Out of 27, only 11 girls attended the school today,” she said.

Despite sporadic outbreaks of violence, the government is trying to encourage tourists to return to Swat, which had been popular with holiday makers for its stunning mountains, balmy summer weather and winter skiing.

On Wednesday, state carrier Pakistan International Airlines is scheduled to hold a test flight to Saidu Sharif, Mingora’s twin town, for the first time since flights were suspended due to the insurgency.