Amita Manandhar
The Paw Print
People who have the privilege to get education never realize how lucky they are. We sit in our air conditioned classrooms and still complain about having to study. We never realize that there are some people who are fighting for their right to get education, and some who never have the chance to go to school. One such person who is fighting for her right is Malala Yousafzai.
Yousafzai, 15, a blogger from Pakistan was shot in head by the Taliban insurgents while she was on her way to school on Tuesday, October 9. She was shot simply because she was writing about how the Taliban were forbidding the girls to get education in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan.
In her blog she wrote about how the Taliban forced girls into not going to school. Through her blog she expressed her love for education, and tried to raise a voice against the Taliban forcing the schools to stop educating girls.
Her issues and her voice made her the target of the Taliban. They even said that they would come after her again if she survived. Despite their heartless attack Yousafzai has beaten all the odds and persisted. She is now in a hospital in UK, and is recovering from her injuries, and now she also has support of several people who are commending her for her bravery.
This story is just a glimpse of one of many atrocities that happen in the areas that are controlled by religious extremists. In nations controlled by these extremists women are treated as a mere commodity, and are denied of education.
The issue here is not just about Yousafzai being shot for raising her voice. The issue is about several other girls like her who are living in fear of being killed, just because they want to be educated.
Why do the extremists feel this intense need to oppress the women and deny them of their rights? We probably will never know how the religious extremists think. It may be that they think if the girls are educated they would start being independent and would start fighting for their rights.
These people assert their authority by trampling over women, and think of themselves as superior beings. Even though the world has moved forward they are still stuck in their old religious fanaticism. They think their religious ideas are making the society better, but they fail to notice that by oppressing and terrorizing another human being they are not doing any service to the society.
So what can we do to change the thinking of these people you ask? Probably nothing, they are so deep in the hole that there is no rope long enough to take them out of that darkness.
I just hope and pray that the next generation will be sensible enough to think, and differentiate right from wrong. I hope that no matter what religion we follow, we will at least have the sensibility to respect each other and treat everyone equally.
What’s Been Said…