Malala Day being observed today

KARACHI/LAHORE/ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: The 16th birthday of Malala Yousufzai is being observed as Malala Day on Friday (today) in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar with gatherings from the civil society, human rights organisations and other institutions to mark the day.

Seminars, conferences and other ceremonies would be held wherein scholars, educationists and analysts would participate and pay tribute to Malala who fought for girl’s education in Swat city of Pakistan against Taliban.

In connection with the birthday of Malala Yousufzai, United Nations (UN) has announced to mark Malala Day as UN Youth Assembly coincides with her birthday. In support of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative, international youth leaders’ conference will be convened at the UN headquarters and in cities around the world in support of reaching the goal of having all children, especially girls, in schools by 2015. The concluding resolution of the Youth Assembly will urge governments, and concerned authorities to take decision for provision of education to every child.

Malala has been struggling against Taliban’s anti girls’ education policies for several years as she continued education with her classmates at home in Swat not surrendering to militant threats.

She became a public figure after being brutally attacked by the Taliban when she was on her way to school on October 9, 2012. Taliban claimed to have attacked Malala because she was campaigning for the rights of girls’ education.

Meanwhile, the UN Information Centre in Islamabad issued a statement, saying, “Malala Yousufzai is a courageous young education rights campaigner from Pakistan who was targeted and shot by extremists on her way to school in 2012. After a long road to recovery, Malala is back and determined to keep making her voice heard.”

Malala, who has become one of the best –known students in the world, will make her first high-level public appearance and speech at the UN General Assembly today. At the heart of “Malala Day” is a call to improve the lives of some 57 million out of school children by improving education access by 2015.

On this occasion, Malala will be joined by hundreds of students from more than 80 countries, in a unique Youth Assembly to issue a global call for quality education for all. It said that Malala Day could be a new beginning for education and the leading role that youth around the world can play in enabling all children to get an education.

“Education is a fundamental human right, a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and crucial to mutual understanding and global citizenship. In order to renew and reinvigorate global commitments to education, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched the Global Education First Initiative to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning, and prepare children to grow up to be global citizens,” it read.