Malala’s request: ‘Don’t rename schools after me’
The top local government official in Swat, Kamran Rehman, told AFP that he spoke to Malala by phone.
PESHAWAR:
Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai has backed reversing a decision to rename a girls college in her honour after students said the move could endanger them, an official said on Friday. Around 150 students boycotted classes and tore up pictures of Malala in protest last week at the renaming of their Government Girls Degree College Saidu Sharif after the 15-year-old, saying the move would make them a target for militants.
The top local government official in Swat, Kamran Rehman, told AFP that he spoke to Malala by phone on Monday.
“Malala Yousafzai called me from Birmingham hospital and said the provincial government should revert to the old name if there are security fears among the girl students,” Kamran said.
Malala was shot on her school bus in Swat in October by Taliban gunmen and is now recovering in a hospital in Britain.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2012.
Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai has backed reversing a decision to rename a girls college in her honour after students said the move could endanger them, an official said on Friday. Around 150 students boycotted classes and tore up pictures of Malala in protest last week at the renaming of their Government Girls Degree College Saidu Sharif after the 15-year-old, saying the move would make them a target for militants.
The top local government official in Swat, Kamran Rehman, told AFP that he spoke to Malala by phone on Monday.
“Malala Yousafzai called me from Birmingham hospital and said the provincial government should revert to the old name if there are security fears among the girl students,” Kamran said.
Malala was shot on her school bus in Swat in October by Taliban gunmen and is now recovering in a hospital in Britain.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2012.