PESHAWAR:
The outspoken and confident Mamaraha Afridi, 14, is the first girl from Khyber Agency to represent her area at an international platform. Her creativity and leadership skills came in the limelight at the “First Idea Asia Youth Forum” held in Thailand this year. Around 200 teenagers from 22 Asian countries participated in the event.
In a cultural show competition, her team won the first prize for presenting the traditional Pakhtun Attan dance. In a speech contest, she bagged the third prize. She also performed in a talent competition, where her team clinched two awards for Best Cultural Costumes and Creativity for Peace Poem. Their lively performances won applause from the audience, said Sana Ejaz, the training coordinator.
Afridi belongs to Landi Kotal, a sub-division of Khyber Agency. A seventh grader at the Bacha Khan Education Foundation School, she looks back in horror when the ongoing targeted attacks sabotaged her school in three subsequent attacks. “The first time the boundary wall of the school caved in, then the main gate and finally the whole building was blown away (this year),” she said. As a result, 600 students were affected.
She recalls taking exams under adverse circumstances. “I have taken an exam in a mosque, another in a hujra while still another in a graveyard,” she said. When she got selected for the competition, her father asked her to stay mum about it. “People in our area are narrow-minded and don’t allow their daughters to go to local schools, let alone abroad.”
Following persistent attacks on the educational institutions, the locals stopped their children from going to schools. “My father is educated and he wants all of his siblings to get higher education but cannot afford to do so. I want to get higher education and bring good name to my country,” she said.
Moreover, she demanded the government to reconstruct the destroyed schools in the region. “We need to follow the developed countries’ education system for building a prosperous society,” she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2012.
COMMENTS (4)
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Our country is full of gems from north to south
Please leave the poor child alone. We dont want her to become a target.
Her father told her to stay mum about it (due to security reasons) and ET put her all over the internet/news. Great journalism. Thumbs up.