Naming Danger

One child, one courageous young girl has been moved out of the direct line of danger.  Malala Yousafzai, whom an unrepentant, vicious member of the Taliban had been assigned to kill and thus remove an irritant in the form of a young girl determined to pursue an education, remains in London.  Where she was taken for professional medical attention of a calibre that would save her life.

After the near-successful assassination, when a gunman fired at point-blank range at Malala on her school bus on the way to her school in the Swat Valley, Malala remains in hospital in Britain.  She became a cause celebre in Pakistan with people marching in the streets in protest against the action of the Taliban seeking to destroy the life of a young girl because of her wish to become educated.

Seeking to commemorate her courage, a college for girls was renamed in her honour.  Drawing the attention of the Taliban to the school and imperilling the lives of those young women attending the school.  Girls just like Malala, prepared to honour what she suffered in seeking the very same opportunities they do, to achieve an education. 

But unprepared to risk their lives by drawing the attention of the Taliban.

 

 Protests over the new name began last week

 

They and their parents conducted loud and vocal and determined demonstrations over the name change.  Pupils at the Mingora school threw stones, ripping up posters of Malala, in a concerted effort to draw attention to the authorities that in honouring Malala, they were inflicting the potential for danger on those who attended classes at the school.

Malala Yousafzai took her own action, understanding quite well what was involved, and evidencing clearer-headed decision-making than the school authorities that sought to honour her and in so doing placing other students' lives in danger.  "She called me last week and asked that the name of the college be changed and reverted back to its original name or any other name except hers", said Kanran Rehman Khan, district co-ordination officer in Swat.

"The protesters were not against Malala, but feared that the naming of the college could pose a serious security threat to them as well as their institution."