Amazing news in the tragic tale of a 15-year-old student activist shot in the head by the Taliban: Malala Yousufzai stood up with help from her hospital bed in Britain today, ten days after the assassination attempt. The hospital released this photo, with Malala’s blessing, of the girl whose only “offensive” was to speak out for girls’ right to education and speak against the Islamic extremists in Pakistan who want to keep girls in the dark.
Doctors said that Malala is able to write, and may be able to speak in a few days when she gets her tracheotomy tube out. The bullet hit her left brow and traveled down through the base of her neck. After recovering to a sufficient degree, she’ll need reconstructive surgery on her skull.
This girl is not yet done by any stretch with the Islamic militants who have overrun her home. Meanwhile, the Taliban have been ordered to target journalists covering the shooting because Hakeemullah Mehsud, head of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is upset about the bad press.
The Taliban’s “justification” for shooting a schoolgirl in the head? “We did not attack her for raising voice for education. We targeted her for opposing mujahideen and their war. Sharia says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam.”
THANK YOU for the update!
I just walked in, hadn’t had time to check the BBC or DAWN for the latest.
“Doctors said that Malala is able to write, and may be able to speak in a few days when she gets her tracheotomy tube out. ”
I hate to break it to you but the photo shows that her tracheotomy tube is already out….
Or did the doctors remove the tube, allow the photo to be taken, and then re-insert the tube??
I have no medical expertise and don’t suppose I’ve ever seen a tracheotomy, but what’s that green thing at her throat?
Where is the liberal outrage over this child being shot for the crime of wanting an education? Oh yeah, they’re busy whining about “binders” or some such garbage.
Doctor’s are concerned about infection, according to DAWN.
I’m concerned about Pakistan “finding a pair” to do something about this. I suspect the populace is too dispirited and the Armed Forces are too obsessed with India.
I’m afraid that Malala will be forgotten … until the Taliban try again and finish the job.
The tragedy is that Pakistan is not a failed nation. It is a failed society.
And another thing.
She’d been threatened prior to the attack, so why didn’t she have protection? Because her father considered it un-Islamic for men to be in close company with her, even protecting her.
Her father refused bodyguards for his daughter.
I’ve seen nothing to indicate that he has changed his views. If she returns to Pakistan, she will be killed courtesy of her father.
Presumably, he doesn’t care what Allah might think of the matter.
The 7th century cult of Muhammad will murder anyone who is against the revolution. Also, the shame she has brought to her family for speaking her mind will require her to be Honor murdered.
Yes, yes, I know, allah akbar!
Shame brought to her family ….
Not quite.
It’s a fine point. Her father’s very willing for her to get an education, and willing for her to have posted (blogged, back in Jan/Feb 2009) on the BBC Urdu web site.
The “perverse” angle, from our perspective, is that he cannot reconcile providing safety for her with the presence of (male) bodyguards necessary to achieve it.
He is mentally screwed. Malala is far more screwed. Pakistan, caught up in the rigid hyper-legalisms of all this and more, is not just circling the drain. It’s headed down it.
The losers are Pakistan’s common people, who’ve been taught to obey Islamist legalisms without asking questions. They live in the gulag of religiosity which Zia-ul-Haq was creating back when Barry Sotero blissfully visited Pakistan as a college student.
They didn’t ask for it. Zia and the Wahabbi-influenced Deobandis gave it to them.
Known of those born into the cult of Muhammad, and the god of the Kaabba ever asked for it.
If anyone deserved a Nobel Peace Prize……..
This young woman is a REAL Hero.