News

PHILADELPHIA: Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot by the Taliban because she advocated education for girls, has won the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Yousafzai was just 15 when she was shot in the head while returning from school in Mingora, Pakistan, in October 2012 since arguing that girls should be allowed to pursue an education, which was hindered under the Talibaan.
"It's an honor to be awarded the Liberty Medal," Yousafzai, now 17, said Sunday.

"I accept this award on behalf of all the children around the world who are struggling to get an education."
After surviving the attack, Yousafzai continued to be an outspoken advocate on education, prompting Gordon Brown, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, to petition the agency to recommit to a goal of universal primary education for children around the world. The petition gained more than 3 million signatures and helped lead Pakistan to pass a Right to Education Bill, a first in that country.

"Malala's courageous fight for equality and liberty from tyranny is evidence that a passionate, committed leader, regardless of age, has the power to ignite a movement for reform," said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the chairman of the National Constitution Center.

The medal has been awarded annually since 1989, when Polish Solidarity founder Lech Walesa received it first. Since then, recipients have included boxer Mohammad Ali, former US President Jimmy Carter, and, last year, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Yousafzai will receive the award at a ceremony at the center on Oct. 21. [Source: Dawn 30/06/14]

Comment

Malala's story has also been used to further fuel and re-enforce the age-old myth that Islam and Islamic rule oppresses women and deprives them of their rights and that they are in need of Western-style liberation. It is a narrative that has been employed historically and over decades, continuing into modern times to maintain Western secular hegemony over the region by fighting the resurgence of Islam internationally in order to prevent the establishment of an Islamic system in the Muslim world that would threaten Western political and economic interests.

However, it is not Islam but Western colonial foreign policy that has stripped women and girls in Pakistan and many other Muslim countries of a valuable education. The ‘War on Terror' and occupation of Afghanistan has created a constant climate of insecurity and instability in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the region, marked with frequent drone attacks and bombs that have killed thousands over the years, including countless women, girls, and children. A UN Committee on the Rights of Children report stated that hundreds of children are reported to have died, "as a result of attacks and air strikes by the US military forces in Afghanistan" between 2008 and 2012, due to the use of "indiscriminate force".

Where are the rights of these children? Clearly their deaths are acceptable collateral damage to such colonial governments for the sake of securing their interests in the region. Such occupation, war and instability have also generated a lawless environment riddled with crime, abductions, and rape. All this has led to many parents preventing their daughters from travelling far from their homes, including to school. Furthermore, how can states plagued with instability, destruction, and insecurity ever provide a good quality of education to their citizens? After more than 10 years of occupation, almost 9 out of 10 women in Afghanistan remain illiterate.

Hence, it is the destructive Western colonial foreign policy that has not only robbed girls of an education, but robbed them of their lives and dignity, and stands as one of the main obstacles to their effective schooling.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Um Mohammed