Way back on October 9, 2012, a girl was attacked in the Swat Valley by Taliban militants while she was returning from school, an episode which led to worldwide condemnation and giving birth to Malala Yousafzai, a strong voice for women’s education in Pakistan.
The daughter of a Pakistani school teacher, Malala, who survived the attack, is now an international symbol of the movement for women’s education in the country where a girl child is still facing insurmountable obstacles in her path to gaining knowledge.
Malala became the youngest Nobel Laureate in the world but not all Pakistani minor girls are as lucky as her to survive attacks and then emerge as a trail blazer.
Recently, a disturbing pattern has emerged in the South Asian country where unknown armed men are setting girls’ schools on fire, disrupting their education. Schools are being blown up too.
Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Kech and Panjgur regions that have all recorded such disturbing patterns where schools were targeted and attempts were made to torch them down.
A girls’ middle school was set on fire by unknown armed men in Surab district in central Balochistan in May-end close on the heels of an arson by terrorists on another girl’s school attack in North Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Attacks on schools have recently surged in North and South Waziristan districts, reported Dawn, which said on May 9, terrorists had set a girls’ private school in Shawa area of South Waziristan district on fire. The attacks on girls’ schools by Islamists and terrorists continued.
After the school in North Waziristan was targeted, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) strongly condemned the incident and described it as a despicable and cowardly act that could jeopardise the future of many young and talented girls.
Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, then said: “Schools must always remain safe learning environments to protect the growth and healthy development of children, adolescents and young people”
In the Opinion Piece published in The Express Tribune, titled ‘Girls’ schools under attack’, the Pakistani newspaper expressed its strong views on the rising trend and said: “Such attacks not only instill fear but also disrupt the progress towards educational and gender equality, undermining years of development efforts. This is a direct assault on the fundamental right to education for girls.”
The newspaper demanded immediate action from the government.
The government should ensure punishment for those responsible for such acts and increase the use of surveillance cameras, security and other technologies to avoid the repetition of such acts in future.
The Express Tribune questioned whether there was any hidden motive or ideological opposition to girls’ education that was driving such incidents to repeat over the months.
“Understanding the root causes will enable more effective prevention and response strategies. The government must take decisive action to protect these institutions at all costs. Safeguarding their education is an investment in the future of Pakistan,” the opinion concluded, sending out a strong message to the Shehbaz Sharif-led government.
In another opinion piece published in the reputable Dawn newspaper, the Pakistani Daily warned that if such incidents occur continuously then families will start keeping their girl children at home and access to schooling and empowerment will elude thousands of girls in the tribal belt and Balochistan.
“A passive approach will create irreversible damage, such as a trust deficit between the people and the state, along with mass hesitancy to educate the girl child. The country has a moral obligation to safeguard every child’s academic freedom and equality of opportunity. It must fulfil its duty,” the opinion piece concluded.
In an article titled “Navigating the challenges of girls’ education in Pakistan” in The Express Tribune in February this year, writer Saira Batada wrote: “There is a significant gender disparity in educational access, as evidenced by the fact that the net enrolment rate for females is around 49 per cent lower than that of boys. This inequality is especially noticeable in rural areas, when girls’ educational chances are further restricted by sociocultural norms and financial limitations.”
While she wrote that a significant obstacle to women’s education is early marriage, as 21 percent of girls get married before turning 18, increasing the dropout rate, the touching of girls’ schools is a disturbing trend to instil fear psychosis among the girls and their families by obscurantist groups running loose in the country.
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