Malala Day Essay

459 Words2 Pages
Malala Day Speaks against terrorism, becomes part of global campaign to put all children in schools Last October, when Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai was returning home in a school bus, in the remote North-West Frontier Province town of Mingora, she could never have imagined that on her 16th birthday she would be in faraway New York, receiving accolades from the United Nations for being a blazing symbol of women’s right to education in a region subject to the harsh diktats of Taliban rule. Yet that is precisely where she found herself this Friday, as she donned a pink head scarf, and in her first speech since the Taliban in Pakistan tried to kill her nine months ago, told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and around 1,000 students from around the world attending a Youth Assembly at the U.N that education was the only way to improve lives. “Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution,” Ms. Yousafzai said. After images of the prone body of a girl shot in the head and neck, being transported via helicopter to a Peshawar hospital shocked many across the world last year, Ms. Yousafzai, still unconscious, was eventually sent to a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. Receiving several standing ovations this week at the U.N., she reflected, “They thought that the bullet would silence us, but they failed... The terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in life, except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, courage and fervour was born.” At the Youth Assembly, Ms. Yousafzai also presented Mr. Ban with a petition reportedly signed by 4 million people in support of 57 million children who are not unable to attend school, and “demanding that

More about Malala Day Essay

Open Document