Anger spreads over shooting of 14-year-old girl

Malala Yousafzai has survived Taliban shooting while Pakistanis unite in fury

Topics: Women's Rights, Drones, Islam, Taliban, Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai, ,

Anger spreads over shooting of 14-year-old girl

Surgeons in Pakistan successfully removed a bullet from the head of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, a campaigner for girls’ rights. The schoolgirl was targeted by Taliban militants for her activism promoting education for women. She remains unconscious but stable in a Peshawar hospital as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, as the New York Times reported, her attack has provoked anger across Pakistan and the world. The information minister of her province has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of her attackers, while politicians and military leaders have united in condemnation of the shooting. The Times noted:

Some commentators wondered whether the shooting would galvanize public opinion against the Taliban in the same way as a video that aired in 2009, showing a Taliban fighter flogging a teenage girl in Swat, had primed public opinion for a large military offensive against the militants that summer.

Yousafazi had been a symbol of Taliban resistance before her shooting. As the Wall Street Journal noted, she “first came to prominence in 2009 when she wrote an anonymous blog for BBC Urdu about her experiences as a schoolgirl as the Taliban forced closures of private schools as part of an edict banning girls’ education. Malala’s identity was revealed later, and she was nominated for an International Children’s Peace Prize. She also won the National Peace Prize in Pakistan.”

The WSJ reprinted an excerpt from the teenager’s online diary, which illustrated her fear of a Taliban attack on girls attending school:

On my way from school to home I heard a man saying ‘I will kill you’. I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.

While some will see Yousafazi’s tragedy as validating U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, aiming to strike Taliban militants, peace activists have swiftly weighed in to block such a narrative, while expressing anger and sympathy for the young victim. Activists with American anti-war group Code Pink, who are currently visiting Pakistan to protest drone strikes and build on-the-ground solidarity with Pakistanis, condemned the shooting and offered $1,000 to Yousafazi’s school. They stated in a release:

The delegates see a connection between drone attacks and growing extremism in Pakistan. A recent report from Stanford University called drone attacks an effective “recruiting tool” for extremists. “We oppose all forms of terrorism,” said delegate leader Tighe Barry, “and we stand with the people of Pakistan who are fighting for both national sovereignty and individual freedoms.”

Concerns remain about whether Yousafazi will make a full physical recovery and whether she can remain in Pakistan safely now that she is, more than ever, a Taliban target.

 

 

 

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Comments

6 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>