Saturday, January 31, 2009

Good on the Globe and Mail!

Further to this post. I'm often critical of the paper's reporting (especially its headlines) but this is on the front page today:
Kandahar schoolgirls triumph over terrorism

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It was an attack, vicious even by Afghanistan's violent standards, that shocked the world: A group of men on motorbikes surprised a group of school girls and teachers as they walked to school last November and sprayed their faces with acid.

Now, in what is being billed as a triumph over terrorism in this war-ravaged land, most of the 1,300 students – some with permanent scars on their cheeks and damaged vision – have returned to school full time.

Credit has been handed to headmaster Mahmood Qadri, 54, who moved quickly after the attacks, cajoling and begging the frightened families of the girls not to let the attackers win by giving up on their education.

“We told them not to lose this chance for your children,” Mr. Qadri said.

Student Atifa Bibi recovers in a Kandahar hospital last fall after two men on a motorcycle threw acid on her as she was walking to school.

And most listened. Classrooms at Mirwais School for Girls on the outskirts of Kandahar city were brimming earlier this month as the girls prepared for mid-year exams.

One girl told a U.S. reporter that her father urged her to return to school at all costs, even if she is attacked again.

Mr. Qadri's efforts were as much to prove a point to the attackers and would-be copycats: If the goal was to intimidate the girls into staying home, the effort was doomed...

But I suppose the cultural relativists think there's no real significance to the above.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice of them to bring it up. I read about it weeks ago on the blogs I frequent. It would be nice if they would send someone who really cares and would tell the true story of what is going on over there. Their one little feel good story dose not change my opinion of their style and habit of misrepresenting almost any news.

4:20 a.m., February 01, 2009  

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