We are the millennial generation. A generation that does not tolerate what is wrong and demands change through the tools accessible to us. We cover 40 percent of people around the globe. We are members of a shrinking world—we are global citizens.
On Oct. 9, 14 year-old Malala Yousafzai was targeted and shot in Pakistan. The Taliban’s attempted assassination of the young blogger who advocated for equal education has galvanized a worldwide stance against the radical Islamist group.
Malala demanded the right to go to school, and by labeling Malala’s campaign for girl’s education as “an obscenity,” the Taliban have triggered intercontinental disgust and defiance.
“For one Malala shot,” says United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, “there are now thousands of even younger Malalas ready to come forward. We many not yet be seeing a 2012 Asian autumn led by children to mirror the Arab spring, but the spontaneous wave of protest we are witnessing shows that children are more assertive of their right to education than leaders who promised to deliver it.”
115 million children around the globe are bound to hazardous labor. 25,000 girls every day are locked into marriage as child brides. Refugee camp children don’t have access to education. Child soldiers who are torn out of their homes to wield weapons don’t have access to education, and 40 percent of those child soldiers are girls. 46 million children with disabilities around the globe are shut out of school.
One fourth of these children are blind. The number of children out of school in Africa is on the rise. 35 million girls are not granted the right to education.
Malala was shot more than 7, 835 miles away, but this still matters to me, as it should to you, and to every member of our millennial generation. I drag myself out of bed every morning to go school, but, for 61 million children around the globe, the opportunity to get up and go to school is one they don’t have.
Among all of the emergencies facing our world, Malala has sparked a sudden spike in interest in education for all, but the only way we will succeed is if we are unwavering in our solidarity as a country, as a generation, as globe.
A U.N. special envoy for global education has been delegated to bring leaders of education to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zadari on Nov. 10 to discuss how Pakistan can achieve education for all. Demonstrations for Malala have been sparked not only in the neighboring Bangladesh, India, and Afghanistan, but across the world.
As students at Laguna, we are encouraged to be global citizens. Annually, our school dedicates an entire day to global study, but in order to be global citizens we have to go further. We can’t merely learn about global issues, we have participate in them. We have to be a part of the message that dictates what is fair and what is just, and we have to be a part of the rejection of what is wrong.
Malala is a symbol for education as a right for all regardless of jurisdiction. Each and every one of us has an obligation to uphold Malala’s cause and to uphold her as a symbol for insubordination not only against the Taliban, but against all oppression of equal education.
The Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education has posted a petition online. The petition states:
“We call on Pakistan to agree to plan to deliver education for every child. We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls. We call on international organizations to ensure the world’s 61 million out of school children are in education by the end of 2015.”
This worldwide petition is built around a new video in support of Malala. The petition is collecting thousands of names of young people and will be presented to Pakistan’s President Zadari and to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Malala bravely fought for her right to education, for her friends’ right to education, for her classmates’ right to education, for the right of girls across her country—she fought for education as a global right.
In this wave of political diversion, this is something we can all come together on. This is something we have to come together on. The millennial generation has proven that we can virally bring about change. Log on and sign the petition.
