http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Malala-Yousafzai-wows-Washington-after-being-nixed-for-Nobel-peace-prize/articleshow/24044820.cms
WASHINGTON: Taliban could not intimate her, but evidently she is not inhibited in the presence of the President of the United States either. Teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai says she told US President Barack Obama during a visit to the White House on Friday that refocusing efforts on education in Pakistan would make a better impact than drone strikes that kill innocent victims and fuel terrorism.
The White House, which released a photograph of Malala's meeting with the President that also showed First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughter Malia sitting in, did not confirm the account, only noting that the First Couple welcomed her to the Oval Office "to thank her for herinspiring and passionate work on behalf of girls education in Pakistan."
"The United States joins with the Pakistani people and so many around the world to celebrate Malala's courage and her determination to promote the right of all girls to attend school and realize their dreams. As the First Lady has said, investing in girls' education is the very bestthing we can do, not just for our daughters and granddaughters, but for their families, their communities, and their countries," the White House said.
But in a statement issued through Associated Press, Malala claimed to have also "expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact." The White House did not confirm the exchange.
The White House meeting, part of Malala's US tour that has included speaking at Harvard University, the World Bank, and numerous TV appearances, came on what is now celebrated as the International Day of the Girl. "As the President said in his proclamation to mark the International Day of the Girl, across the globe there are girls who will one day lead nations, if only we afford them the chance to choose their own destinies. And on every continent, there are girls who will go on to change the world in ways we can only imagine, if only we allow them the freedom to dream," the White House statement reminded, saluting Malala's efforts "to help make these dreams come true."
Indeed, in several public appearances in Boston, New York, and Washington, the young Pakistani activist has wowed audiences with her passionate promotion of education for girls. Asked on Jon Stewart's Daily Show what she wanted to tell the Taliban, which shot her in the head for espousing education for girls, Malala said, "You can shoot me, but listen to me first. I want education for your sons and daughters. Now I have spoken, so do whatever you want."
The response caused Daily Show's Jon Stewart to go mock slack-jawed. "I know your father is backstage and he's really proud of you. But would he be mad if I adopted you?" Stewart joked. To Christian Amapour on CNN, she said of Taliban: "They only shot a body but they cannot shoot my dreams."
Similar responses to an audience packed into the World Bank atrium on the sidelines of the Bank-Fund annual meeting brought her several rounds of applause. "If a terrorist can change someone's mind and convince them to become a suicide bomber, we can also change their minds and tell them education is the only way to bring humanity and peace," she said, after insisting, "I am proud to be a girl, and I know that girls can change the world."
She said people did not have to do anything extra for their daughters, "but don't clip their wings...let them fly... and give them the same rights as your sons....give them a chance to be a human being." When World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, a physician by profession, asked her why she wanted to enter public life, Malala replied, "Because a doctor can only help someone who has been shot. If I become a politician, I can help make a tomorrow where there are no more cases of people being shot."
Later in the evening, Malala spoke at Sidwell Friends School - where Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha study; also alma mater to Chelsea Clinton and daughters of President Nixon - at a sold-out event hosted by Politics and Prose bookstore. Many of her engagements are aimed at promoting her book "I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.
The Washington event came hours after she had been nixed for the Nobel peace prize after her PR machinery had built unrealistic expectations that she was favored to get it. Malala herself provided the most sober perspective of the hype, saying it would a "great honor and more than I deserve" to win the accolade, but insisting she still had more to do before she felt she'd truly earned it.
"I need to work a lot," she said.
Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old education activist shot by a Taliban gunman last year, sat down with Jon Stewart Tuesday just a day before the anniversary of her attempted assasination. She's also the youngest person ever to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, with the recipients to be announced Friday.
WASHINGTON: Taliban could not intimate her, but evidently she is not inhibited in the presence of the President of the United States either. Teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai says she told US President Barack Obama during a visit to the White House on Friday that refocusing efforts on education in Pakistan would make a better impact than drone strikes that kill innocent victims and fuel terrorism.
The White House, which released a photograph of Malala's meeting with the President that also showed First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughter Malia sitting in, did not confirm the account, only noting that the First Couple welcomed her to the Oval Office "to thank her for herinspiring and passionate work on behalf of girls education in Pakistan."
"The United States joins with the Pakistani people and so many around the world to celebrate Malala's courage and her determination to promote the right of all girls to attend school and realize their dreams. As the First Lady has said, investing in girls' education is the very bestthing we can do, not just for our daughters and granddaughters, but for their families, their communities, and their countries," the White House said.
But in a statement issued through Associated Press, Malala claimed to have also "expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact." The White House did not confirm the exchange.
The White House meeting, part of Malala's US tour that has included speaking at Harvard University, the World Bank, and numerous TV appearances, came on what is now celebrated as the International Day of the Girl. "As the President said in his proclamation to mark the International Day of the Girl, across the globe there are girls who will one day lead nations, if only we afford them the chance to choose their own destinies. And on every continent, there are girls who will go on to change the world in ways we can only imagine, if only we allow them the freedom to dream," the White House statement reminded, saluting Malala's efforts "to help make these dreams come true."
Indeed, in several public appearances in Boston, New York, and Washington, the young Pakistani activist has wowed audiences with her passionate promotion of education for girls. Asked on Jon Stewart's Daily Show what she wanted to tell the Taliban, which shot her in the head for espousing education for girls, Malala said, "You can shoot me, but listen to me first. I want education for your sons and daughters. Now I have spoken, so do whatever you want."
The response caused Daily Show's Jon Stewart to go mock slack-jawed. "I know your father is backstage and he's really proud of you. But would he be mad if I adopted you?" Stewart joked. To Christian Amapour on CNN, she said of Taliban: "They only shot a body but they cannot shoot my dreams."
Similar responses to an audience packed into the World Bank atrium on the sidelines of the Bank-Fund annual meeting brought her several rounds of applause. "If a terrorist can change someone's mind and convince them to become a suicide bomber, we can also change their minds and tell them education is the only way to bring humanity and peace," she said, after insisting, "I am proud to be a girl, and I know that girls can change the world."
She said people did not have to do anything extra for their daughters, "but don't clip their wings...let them fly... and give them the same rights as your sons....give them a chance to be a human being." When World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, a physician by profession, asked her why she wanted to enter public life, Malala replied, "Because a doctor can only help someone who has been shot. If I become a politician, I can help make a tomorrow where there are no more cases of people being shot."
Later in the evening, Malala spoke at Sidwell Friends School - where Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha study; also alma mater to Chelsea Clinton and daughters of President Nixon - at a sold-out event hosted by Politics and Prose bookstore. Many of her engagements are aimed at promoting her book "I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.
The Washington event came hours after she had been nixed for the Nobel peace prize after her PR machinery had built unrealistic expectations that she was favored to get it. Malala herself provided the most sober perspective of the hype, saying it would a "great honor and more than I deserve" to win the accolade, but insisting she still had more to do before she felt she'd truly earned it.
"I need to work a lot," she said.
Sakharov Prize-winner Malala Yousafazai Calls on US Gov’t to Conduct talks with Taliban (Queally)
Posted on 10/11/2013 by Juan Cole
Malala Yousafzai has won the Sakharov Prize for free speech and human rights.
Jon Queally writes at Commondreams.org:
” Malala Yousafzai, the sixteen-year-old girl shot in the head by Taliban members in her native Pakistan for speaking out for women's right to education, is calling out the U.S. government and her own for refusing to do what seems obvious to her: hold peace talks.
Now living in the UK following surgeries for her wounds and ongoing rehabilitation, Yousafzai gave an interview to the BBC in which she called on the U.S to make efforts to end the war taking place in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue,"she told the BBC. "That's not an issue for me, that's the job of the government… and that's also the job of America."
Karzai bucks BSA
Meanwhile, as the possibility of talks between the Afghan Taliban have stalled once again ahead of next year's deadline set by President Obama, a negotiated peace seems as far away as ever.
At a press conference on Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he is not sure the U.S.—now in its thirteenth year of occupying the Central Asian country—can be trusted to respect Afghan sovereignty after 2014. And once again, Karzai is threatening not to sign a military agreement, called the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), designed to establish the ground rules for ongoing U.S. and NATO involvement in the country.
Karzai said he is unsatisfied with the behavior of the U.S. government, specifically citing the continued death of Aghan civilians by U.S. troops, aerial bombings by ISAF forces, and continued drone attacks.
Referring to the U.S and NATO leaders, Karzai said, "They want us to keep silent when civilians are killed. We will not, we cannot."
"The United States and Nato have not respected our sovereignty. Whenever they find it suitable to them, they have acted against it. This has been a serious point of contention between us and that is why we are taking issue of the BSA strenuously in the negotiations right now," Karzai said.
"They commit their violations against our sovereignty and conduct raids against our people, air raids and other attacks in the name of the fight on terrorism and in the name of the resolutions of the United Nations. This is against our wishes and repeatedly against our wishes," he continued.
Earlier this year, the Taliban opened an office in Qatar in order to pave the way for negotiations. So far, however, little or no progress has been made.
The 'forgotten war' and the years ahead
According to author Ann Jones, who recently wrote about the war in Afghanistan—officially America's longest—argued there is little comfort to be found as 2014 approaches. As in Iraq, she says, the destruction and hardships born of U.S. war will continue for decades.
"Even when the war 'ends' and Americans have forgotten it altogether, it won’t be over in Afghanistan," Jones writes. In fact, she adds, "It won’t be over in the U.S. either." She explains:
In Afghanistan, [...] as the end of a longer war supposedly draws near, the rate at which civilians are being killed has actually picked up, and the numbers of women and children among the civilian dead have risen dramatically. This week, as the Nationmagazine devotes a special issue to a comprehensive study of the civilian death toll in Afghanistan — the painstaking work of Bob Dreyfuss and Nick Turse — the pace of civilian death seems only to be gaining momentum as if in some morbid race to the finish.Like Iraqis, Afghans, too, are in flight — fearing the unknown end game to come. The number of Afghans filing applications forasylum in other countries, rising sharply since 2010, reached 30,000 in 2012. Undocumented thousands flee the country illegally in all sorts of dangerous ways. Their desperate journeys by land and sea spark controversy in countries they’re aiming for. It was Afghan boat people who roused the anti-immigrant rhetoric of candidates in the recent Australian elections, revealing a dark side of the national character even as Afghans and othersdrowned off their shores. War reverberates, even where you least expect it.”
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/10/09/Malala-Yousafzai-wows-Jon-Stewart-VIDEO/1001381367515/
Yousafzai appeared on the "Daily Show" to discuss her book, "I Am Malala," her passion for education and life in her native Swat Valley, Pakistan, but it's her profound response to one of Stewart's questions that is getting the most attention.
"The Daily Show" host started out by asking how she felt about the Taliban's plans to target her for another assasination attempt.
"I started thinking about that the Talib would come and he would just kill me," she responded.
But then I thought, ‘If he comes, what would you do Malala? Then I would reply to myself, ‘Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.
But then I said, ‘If you hit a Talib with a shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that harshly, you must fight others through peace and through dialogue and education. Then I said, ‘I'll tell him how important education is and that I even want education for your children, as well. And I would tell him, ‘That's what I want to tell you, now do what you want.'
Stewart, humbled by her response, put his hands to his mouth in astonishment.
"I know your father is backstage and he's very proud of you," he said. "But would he be mad if I adopted you?"
You can watch the rest of Yousafzai's interview below:
The US drone strikes have prohibited both girls and boys from getting education since those drone strikes hit more communities than "terrorist bases." She should have gotten a Nobel Peace Prize but when you call out a former Nobel Peace Prize winner for his terroristic acts, it makes it harder. How ironic! Shows the true character of our president.
ReplyDeleteShe is a remarkable person , wise beyond her years - completely fearless !
ReplyDelete