Malala And Media Role

Malala Yousafzai, a young peace activist, was attacked on 9th October 2012 in SWAT valley as she was going back to home from school. She is known to the world for raising the voice against the Taliban and also raised the voices for education of girls in tribal areas. Currently, she is in United Kingdom and her treatment is going on.

As soon as she was attacked, whole world condemned the attack on her as they were ready to give the condemnation for Malala. Malala gets international fame within seconds. She was the attention of everyone. Everyone was speaking against the attack. International media gave so much coverage to this incident.

But who exactly is Malala Yousafzai to attract so much international attention? What about the two other girls that were injured in the same attack? Even their names are not widely known, much less information about their parents. Apart from the fact that they are out of danger, there is little that we know about their plight. Are they not worthy of attention and sympathy? Within days of the assault on Malala, American troops killed three Afghan children on October 14 in an aerial attack in the Nawa district of Helmand Province in Afghanistan. It may not be adjoining Swat Valley but is not very far either from where Malala was attacked and injured.

As is customary, the US military initially described the bombing as a "precision strike," that was reportedly aimed at several Taliban fighters who were allegedly planting an IED in the road. The attack, however, killed three children. Does anybody know the names of those three innocent Afghan children, all members of the same family collecting dung for fuel in the grinding poverty of Afghanistan despite 11 years of America's showering the country with cruise missiles and trillions of dollars in "aid"? For the record, the three children were Borjan, 12; Sardar Wali, 10; and Khan Bibi, 8 but do not expect Obama, Clinton or any other Western official to rush to the microphone to name these children or condemn the cowardly attack that snuffed the life out of three innocent children. That would not serve America's "national interest" nor would keeping statistics of the hundreds of children murdered by American drones in Pakistan's tribal region since 2004. On October 20, American forces killed four more children in Afghanistan. There is no mention of their names; it is safe to assume we will never learn their names. Another batch of Afghan children has been slaughtered for the sake of protecting and projecting "US interests." Besides this, there are many children who die in drone attacks. There is no one in the world to speak and raise voice against the drone victims. There is not any kind of condemnation from any country in the world against the drone killings. Is Malala the only innocent girl in Pakistan?

"MALALA DAY" was being observed on 10 November 2012 in the whole world. This is un-justice to the other children who died in drone attacks. They are also innocent, they are also children. No one in the world has observed "DRONE ATTACKS DAY". Is Malala better than all the children? Is she so much special?

The whole world must open its eyes and must look at other children as well. Besides this, Malala is not the only youth icon in Pakistan. There are many other talented youngsters in Pakistan as well who have done so much for Pakistan. They also deserve to be in the news as well.