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Hi I'm Candice Cunanan with UTSA World News at five.
Problem: At the beginning of 2009 Abdul Kakkar, a BBC
reporter out of Pakistan asked Teacher, Ziauddin Yousafzai if one of his students would blog
about their life in the Swat District under Taliban militant rule. Parents would not allow
their children to take that risk because at that time television, music and girl education
was strictly prohibited. Originally, a girl from Ziauddin's school named Aisha volunteered
to write the blog but her parents' halted her participation because they feared Taliban
Reprisals. Malala Yousafzai, Ziauddin's daughter was the next alternative. It's unknown whether
she volunteered or her father suggested her participation.
After documenting her life for several months, Taliban forces were seeking to kill Malala
for writing about her life and expressing her desire to equal education- two things
that were completely against the Taliban law. On October 9, 2012 the Taliban boarded Malala's
school bus, weapons drawn. They asked to see the girl who dares write about women's rights
and educational freedom. Malala courageously came forward and was shot in the head. When
this incident occurred it was the shot felt around the world because suddenly, everyone
knew who this brave little girl was. Political Situation:
The Taliban rules The Swat District of Pakistan, where political rights and freedoms aren't
permitted- especially for girls and women. The Taliban took over the Swat District and
imposed their version of the Sharia law, which included preventing women's education, death
penalty for barbers, music shop owners and thieves.
After much bloodshed and arduous battles between the Pakistan Army and the Taliban, the Taliban
left and slowly re-entered the Swat and regained control of at least 80 percent of the district.
Since the Swat Valley has been under Taliban rule, the media has been in danger. Chaos
and fighting occurs on a regular basis but all media are paralyzed. Local newspapers
stopped publishing to protect their safety, National newspapers aren't being distributed
and cable television is not working. Research Questions:
This brings about a few questions: What (if anything) are we doing to stop the Taliban
rule of the Swat Valley? According to articles written by Dawn, the United States is beginning
to pull their troops from the Middle East and allow them to manage their own political
systems. With that being said, are Pakistani leaders
doing anything about this issue? According to another article written by Dawn, the Pakistani
Military are more concerned with a conflict with India. They accept the takeover from
Taliban as a necessary evil. Methodology:
Research on the amount and content of coverage was an essential part of my findings. I compared
the amount of coverage by looking into both American and Middle East publications. Questions
that I asked myself were: Who published on the shooting of Malala the most? Why did one
country report on the current event more than the other?
To analyze content, I read various publications and watched news reports, then compared similarities
and differences on specifically what the articles covered. Questions that I asked myself were:
What is the difference on coverage for the US compared to other countries? Does the difference
between culture and media law have a play in what is being said?
Analysis/Discussion: Every single US outlet published or covered
the news of Malala's brave act. Al-Jazeera and Dawn also covered the story. She was recently
on the April issue of Time Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the
World" along with President Obama, first Lady Michelle Obama, LeBron James, Justin Timberlake,
Jay-Z, Beyonce, Pope Francis and Kate Middleton among others.
Vanity Fair featured Malala in a special report called "States of Terror" and said "The media
handed a megaphone to a kid who wanted more from her country." Interestingly enough, when
I tried various forms of News coverage of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan news on several
search engines, only American outlets showed results. Which leads to my question: why is
this so? From my own research and observation of both the United States and Pakistan (particularly
the Swat District) media rights are far stricter in Pakistan than in the US. There's little
to no distribution in the Swat Valley. The United States actively practices the right
to a free speech and press. Some food for thought: could the lack of coverage from the
Middle East be due to their cultural beliefs concerning women?
Because there was so little coverage on Malala in the Middle East I observed the content
of publications from the US. I noticed that in April's issue of Time, she was placed with
Hollywood celebrities. Perhaps the US and the UK love Malala so much because she believes
in our practices of equal rights for all- most particularly the right to education for
girls and women. America tends to publicize celebrities as diplomats to help maintain
their special interests. A question for debate: while her act was courageous, could the placement
of Malala with celebrities be an attempt to call her a celebrity and thus place her as
a diplomat for the US? Perhaps the best way to find out is to stay tuned and see how the
rest of her story plays out. Conclusion:
Today, Malala Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She continues her education
in the UK and looks forward to learning more about politics. This new love for politics
is a change from her dream of becoming a Doctor and hating politics.
Here's a video of Malala on her first day of school after treatment
of her gunshot wound. Thanks for watching.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/20/taliban-victim-malala-yousafzai-school
Credits
Malala Yousafzai foundation makes first grant | World news | guardian.co.uk . (2013, April
5). Latest US news, world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | guardiannews.com
| The Guardian . Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/05/malala-yousafzai-girls-schooling-fund
Clinton, C. (2013, April 18). Malala Yousafzai | TIME 100: The 100 Most Influential People
in the World | TIME.com. The 100 Most Influential People in the World | TIME.com. Retrieved
April 24, 2013, from http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/malala-yousafzai/
Hasan, S. (2010, April 29). BBC News - Pakistan Taliban militants 'reappear' in Swat valley.
BBC News - Home. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8651519.stm
Malala Yousafzai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai
Marie, B. (n.d.). Malala Yousafzai: The 15-Year-Old Pakistani Girl Who Wanted More from Her Country
| Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/04/malala-yousafzai-pakistan-profile
Recording/Editing
Bryanna Bradley