Girls Are Going Back To School
The valley was cleared of the Taliban by a military operation in 2009, but it’s taken awhile for girls to fill the schools again. Girls struggle to simply get to school in the remote mountainous region and the persistent issue of poverty remains key. The Taliban is considered a greater threat in areas that border the valley, but activists here say there’s a need to make sure girls, as well as boys, are educated in order to avoid a repeat of the past. “There is a feeling [in Swat] that, if we are not educated, these things will happen again,” says Hazer Gul, a local activist. “The Mullahs misinformed us. They [the community] have understood that education is the key to avoiding militants.” Enter the Malala Fund: The fund named for Malala Yousafzai, the young girl who was shot point blank by a Taliban gunman for her vocal support of school for girls in the region, aims to improve access to primary school education for children around the world. Her survival of the Taliban attack on her school bus one year ago in October, shined a spotlight on Pakistani girls’ education – and made her a global spokesperson for the millions of Pakistani girls who are denied education by the movement.
