Women and Education

For my English 202H class, we had to pick a topic about literacy and write an annotated bibliography on that topic. My group picked gender and literacy, focusing on women's access to education around the world. The paper is written and our presentation is done. And then thishappens. A 14 year-old girl was shot and almost killed because she was going to school. As the article indicates, her attackers thought she was too Western. Malala Yousafzai, at 14, has become an activist for women's education to the point where the Taliban is threatened by her. If she survived this attack, a spokesperson for the Taliban said they would attack her again, according to the NY Times article. She was awarded a national award for peace in 2011, at 14. I'm very impressed that such a young girl has the courage to stand up for her rights, in a country like Pakistan where the Taliban rules. While killing a woman is considered sinful in Islam, according to the article, special exception was made for Malala because of her public persona. She kept a blog for the BBC about going to school as a girl in Pakistan, where the girls would hide their uniforms and books in their bags and under their clothes so that they wouldn't be recognized as school girls. She wants a career in politics, to fix the situation in all of Pakistan and to be one of the good leaders that Pakistan needs to become one of the best countries in the world, according to Malala. Malala is an inspiration--standing up for what she believes in and working to make life better not only for herself, but for future generations as well. I hope that she gets the necessary medical attention and recovers fully from this horrible attack.