by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Muslim World, Women Entrepreneur
Malala Yousafzai
By Hardev Sanotra,
Las Vegas : Taliban’s efforts to keep girls away from education in Pakistan was defeated by their very action of shooting her, says Malala Yousafzai, the world’s youngest Nobel laureate.
“The result is that today millions of people all over the world are speaking out” and taking action against keeping young girls away from the liberating influence of education, she told an audience of several thousand techies here on Tuesday.
She was invited by VMware for their VMworld 2018 conference to talk about her rising from the near-death experience to become a leading voice in the world on educating young girls.
Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban member in 2012 when she defied the diktat of the Sunni Islamic fundamentalist movement, which was entrenched in Afghanistan.
She was interviewed on the stage by Sanjay Poonen, Chief Operating Officer of VMware.
Born in Swat Valley of Pakistan, Malala said her life was as normal as could be and she was lucky to have a father who believed in her and in educating girls.
“We could not then believe that something like the Taliban could happen, as you cannot today, here, that someone would come with guns and take away your right to education.”
She was repeatedly greeted with applause from an appreciative audience as she told her story of defiance.
She said she had to fight against the mindset of people — manifested by the Taliban men — who were against educating girls, or even allowing them to move out of their homes alone.
“They were against education because they knew that it would empower women to be independent.”
Men with guns first banned music, then they stopped women from going out and finally prevented the girls from being educated.
Malala did not remember the incident leading up to her shooting in the Swat Valley as she recalled the moment when she woke up in a hospital in Birmingham, UK, where she stayed for two and a half months.
She was conferred the Nobel Prize for her courage and became an activist and a symbol of defiance against the Taliban’s brand of politics.
Poonen sought to know why she had forgiven the person who sought to kill her. She said he was a young Taliban follower who was told that he had to kill a “blasphemous” person. He thought he was a doing good in a twisted thinking about Islam — a religion, she said, which spreads the message of kindness, tolerance and peace.
She said she hoped that the person gets education and realises the true meaning of the religion he was following. She also did not want to hold on to the anger. “Hate and anger is a waste of energy and I did not want to waste my energy”, and so she moved on to “forgive” the person who had attacked her.
She told the audience that she was named after Malalai of Maiwand who had defied the British troops in the 1880 Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan, who was one of the few women known in history from the area, because traditionally women “did not have names”, as they were confined behind burkhas or head-to-toe-covering.
“They were called either someone’s daughter or sister,” not having a name of her own.
Talking on a lighter note at the conference, she said she was overwhelmed by “too many acronyms” used by the techies, bringing the house down. She spoke about her love of cricket and how she tried to explain to Westerners that it “was okay” to play a game for five days which was exciting and not boring as many thought.
She spoke about the need for India and Pakistan to have good relations, “but when it comes to cricket we are rivals”. She said it did not matter who got the cricketing World Cup as long as Pakistan won against India.
Poonen, of Indian origin, and who is responsible for worldwide sales, services, alliances, marketing and communication at VMware said that the two nations were united in their love for the game.
Malala also spoke about doing everything to ensure that girls get educated since 150 million of them worldwide did not get the “liberating influence” which would give them freedom and independence.
She works to raise money for her foundation which works in several countries towards that goal.
She told the 100 students invited to the conference from two schools that they should “believe in themselves” and speak up about things they believe in.
“There is no such thing as young age for taking up causes,” she told a student who posed a question on behalf of the others, pointing to her own age of 10 or 11 when she took up the fight against the Taliban.
Poonen announced Dell Technologies’ – VMware’s parent company – plan to provide the invited students’ school with computers, and he urged his colleagues (some 23,000 of them) to donate to Malala’s foundation for which the company would provide matching funds.
(Hardev Sanotra is in Las Vegas at the invitation of VMware for its VMworld 2018 conference. He can be reached at hardev.sanotra@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneur, Women Entrepreneur, World
Rio de Janeiro : Apple Developer Academies will play an important role in supporting the Malala Fund’s mission to provide education opportunities to girls across the globe, Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai has said, referring to deepening of partnerships between the tech giant and the fund.
Meeting the young developers at the Apple Developer Academy here on Friday, Malala said the fund will gain access to new tools to support its mission of free, safe, quality education by tapping into Apple’s network of student developers.
“The students in Apple’s Developer Academy programme share my passion for improving the world around us, and I am eager to see their innovative ideas to help girls in Brazil and across the globe,” Malala said.
The Nobel peace laureate was speaking on the occasion of Apple launching on Friday a new collaboration between its 10 Apple Developer Academies in Brazil and Malala Fund to advance girls’ education opportunities.
“My hope is that every girl, from Rio to Riyadh, can be free to choose her own future,” she said.
In January this year, Apple entered into a partnership with the Malala Fund to support new programmes in India and Latin America, with the initial goal of extending secondary education opportunities to more than 100,000 girls.
“We share Malala’s goal of getting more girls into quality education and are thrilled to be deepening our partnership with Malala Fund by mobilising thousands of Apple Developer Academy students and alumni across Brazil,” Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
“Apple has been committed to education since day one, and we can’t wait to see what our creative student developers come up with to help Malala Fund make a difference for girls around the world,” Cook added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Malala Yousafzai
Brasilia : Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said here that voting is the most powerful weapon for change and improve the country and suggested that girls’ education should be a priority for every presidential candidate in Brazil’s forthcoming elections.
In a debate on education and the empowerment of women held in Sao Paulo, the young winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Monday stressed that voting is power and it is now in the hands of every Brazilian, so they should use this power to choose the one that will best represent them, reports Efe news.
In front of Brazilian activists and educators, Yousafzai, 20, said that girls’ education in the long term is the most worthwhile investment and should be the top priority in the campaigns of those who vie for the presidency of Brazil in the elections in October.
“Education is more than just about learning and reading. It was about emancipation. It was about empowerment of women,” Yousafzai told some 800 members of the audience in the Ibirapuera Park Auditorium.
Yousafzai also announced that she will launch her personal project very soon in Brazil to promote girls’ education, although she did not offer details about the initiative.
According to the activist, it is estimated that some 1.5 million women in the South American country have been denied this basic right.
Yousafzai, one of the most well-known and influential figures for her fight for women’s rights, was shot by the Taliban at age 15 for her campaign for and defence of girls’ right to go to school.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistani Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai arrived here on Thursday, more than five years after she left the country following a failed assassination attempt by the Taliban for advocating girls rights to education.
Yousafzai’s flight landed at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport at 1.41 a.m., reports Geo News. The 20-year-old was accompanied by her parents and CEO of the Malala Fund.
She is expected to hold meetings with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, as well as other important figures.
Yousafzai will also participate in the “Meet the Malala” programme during her four-day stay in Pakistan.
In October 2012, Yousafzai – then 15-years-old – was shot in the head at point-blank range by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) gunmen as she was returning from her school in Swat valley.
She suffered bullet injuries and was admitted to the military hospital Peshawar but was later flown to London for further treatment.
The shooting drew widespread international condemnation, Geo News reported.
She has become an internationally recognised symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts of denying women education and other rights.
In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17 in recognition of her efforts for children’s rights.
Earlier this month, the Nobel laureate appeared on “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” on Netflix.
Speaking of Swat, Malala stated: “It is just like a paradise on Earth.”
She said she “did not realise how beautiful Swat was” until she moved to the UK.
During a visit to Canada last year, she was provided an opportunity to address the country’s parliament, Dawn news reported.
Last April, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected Malala Yousafzai to be a UN messenger of peace, the highest honour bestowed by the UN chief on a global citizen.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
London : Apple on Monday announced to support The Malala Fund — led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai — which is focused on advocating every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe and quality education.
Apple will become the fund’s first Laureate partner, enabling a significant expansion of Malala’s effort to support girls’ education and advocate for equal opportunity.
“We believe that education is a great equalising force, and we share Malala Fund’s commitment to give every girl an opportunity to go to school,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
Cook will also join the Malala Fund leadership council.
“Yousafzai is a courageous advocate for equality. She’s one of the most inspiring figures of our time, and we are honoured to help her extend the important work she is doing to empower girls around the world,” Cook added.
With Apple’s support, Malala Fund expects to double the number of grants awarded by its “Gulmakai Network” and extend funding programmes to India and Latin America — with the initial goal of extending secondary education opportunities to more than 100,000 girls.
The fund’s “Gulmakai Network” currently supports programmes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey and Nigeria.
Apple will help Malala Fund scale its organisation by assisting with technology, curriculum and research into policy changes needed to help girls everywhere attend school and complete their education.
“My dream is for every girl to choose her own future,” said Yousafzai.
“I am grateful that Apple knows the value of investing in girls and is joining Malala Fund in the fight to ensure all girls can learn and lead without fear,” she noted.
Since 2013, Malala Fund has been working in partnership with other organisations, the private sector and governments around the world to realize every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe, quality education.
“With an estimated 130 million girls out of school, the importance of their work is increasingly essential,” Apple said.
—IANS
