AsiaNet-Pakistan Premier Editorial Content and Press Release Distribution Service
Islamabad, January 29, 2013 (PPI-OT): The bravery of shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai has inspired children around the world to fight for a better education, key figures in a UN campaign said on Friday.
Hosting a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is involved in UN global education efforts, said Pakistani student Malala has inspired children around the world to fight for a better education. Prime Minister Thorning-Schmidt said Malala’s example showed the need for the international community to help “vulnerable states.
“Her story has affected us all, it has affected teenagers all over the world, my own teenage daughters are thinking about this and worrying about girls’ education,” she said – “And that’s why this ownership (of the issue) is so important: some girls don’t get education because their country is at war and a weak state and a very poor country.“But some kids, especially girls, don’t get their education because of cultural, religious choices in their part of the world.”
The Danish premier said all countries should take the responsibility for providing a good basic education where possible, but where failed states were unable to, then the world must help instead.
“Those examples where girls are allowed into schools, where we help in vulnerable states like Afghanistan, that’s where we can make a difference,” Thorning-Schmidt said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened the discussion by saying that the world “cannot afford a lost generation”. “Education must be a top priority of global and development agendas — this is not an option it is an imperative,” he told the audience of global politicians and business leaders.
Malala was shot on her school bus in northwestern Swat in Oct 2012 by Taliban gunmen for the “crime” of promoting girls’ education, but survived the murder attempt.
Malala first rose to prominence aged just 11 with a blog for the BBC Urdu service in 2009 in which she described life in Swat during the bloody rule of the Taliban.She is still recovering from her injuries.
For more information, contact:
Mrs. Esther Lonstrup,
Development Counsellor
Embassy of Denmark
House #16, Street 21, F-6/2,
P.O. Box 1118, Islamabad,
Pakistan
Tel: +9251 209 9800
Fax: +9251 282 3483
Email: isbamb@um.dk
Cell: 0307 555 9141 Or
Mrs. Hina Akhtar,
Communication Consultant
Cell: 0306 545 1766