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Your letters: Education is every child's right
âDear sisters and brothers, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children donât
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'Dear sisters and brothers, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don't. Why is it that countries which we call 'strong' are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it, why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so hard?'
As Malala Yousafzai delivered her Nobel Prize acceptance speech live on TV, I was all ears. As the youngest Nobel laureate in history, she gave a powerful speech arresting in its utter straightforwardness. It was simple, yet so powerful. It moved my heart. I was so glad to see her accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, the Indian children's rights advocate. But it also brings pain to learn that many children, especially girls, cannot receive education. It is even sadder to know that they are deprived of such basic rights mostly because of social taboos and misguided religious interpretations.
Sadly, but truly, women and girls have been victims of ruthless power struggles for centuries in all societies and cultures around the world. Throughout history, many pious individuals have pondered their relationship with God only to end up with a program of hatred, murder, misogyny, bigotry or child abuse. The world seems to conspire in exercising this patriarchy in different forms such as the denial of education, unequal salaries compared to men in workplaces, forced marriages and prostitution, among many other things.
It is exasperating to continue hearing news of how groups of individuals or a bunch of so-called 'religious clerics' use religion to rob girls of education, saying it is forbidden and the seed of evil! I can't help thinking what a stupid shallow baseless argument they draw on. Are they playing God? Worse, are they idiotically personifying themselves above God and the Prophet? It is so maddening. Reasoning with them is just like hitting a concrete wall.
As if history is repeated all over again, just days after we rejoiced in Malala's speech and tried to bring the dream alive, the world is shocked by the deliberate killing of innocent people at an army-run school in Peshawar by Pakistani Taliban militants, killing 141 people, 132 of them children. On that fateful day, many Malalas died while they were at school. In a place where knowledge should have flourished, these kids were brutally exposed to violence, vengeance and horror. The gory details as recalled by the survivors make our stomachs churn and our core is rocked with unspeakable rage. The grotesque massacre was a message to discourage Malala and her supporters from advocating education for women or children.
What madness drove these beasts to unleash their senseless brutal attack on these innocents? Militants have perpetrated extreme violent acts in the name of religion ' whether it be Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or any other faith throughout history. We have to unite to say no to violence in resolving any conflict. We have to promote peace and love as the antidote to war and hatred.
In view of this, we must learn to be good to each other, be tolerant and respectful, to strive for a vision of harmony. Our race should outgrow the barbarism of ignorant beasts in a world where growing intolerance carries the forbidden fruit that might open a Pandora's box.
Yuni Herlina
Depok, West Java
