Malala meets Barack Obama and asks him to end Drone Strikes

Education Activist Malala Yousafzai met U.S President Barack Obama at White House.

The below photograph which is issued by the White House shows the Obamas’ 15-year-old daughter, Malia, also present during the visit.

Click on the above Image to see the Large picture

The Obamas welcomed Malala Yousafzai to the Oval Office “to thank her for her inspiring and passionate work on behalf of girls education in Pakistan,” according to a statement issued by the White House.

“Across the globe there are girls who will one day lead nations, if only we afford them the chance to choose their own destinies,” the president said. “And on every continent, there are girls who will go on to change the world in ways we can only imagine, if only we allow them the freedom to dream. We salute Malala’s efforts to help make these dreams come true.”

Malala said she was honored to meet Obama and that she raised concerns with him about the administration’s use of drones, saying they are “fueling terrorism.”

“I thanked President Obama for the United States’ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees,” Yousafzai said in a statement published by the Associated Press. “I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.”

Recently Malala won the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. She was nominated for the Nobel peace prize, but she didn’t get it.

She is now living in Britain, where she underwent treatment for the injuries sustained in the attack, and campaigns for girls’ right to education.

Read here the Quotes of Malala, and watch here inspiring speech of Malala at U.N.

Malala’s activism started after the Taliban banned girls from schools in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2009. She anonymously blogged for the BBC in opposition to that order, and became an open advocate for girls’ education.

In 2011, Malala told CNN, “I have the right of education. I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk.”

A year later, she was riding the bus home from school when a Taliban gunman climbed aboard and shot her in the head. She nearly died.

Since then, Malala has recovered and continued advocating for girls’ education, despite ongoing death threats from the Taliban.

Recently Malala Yousafzai brought down the house at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart when asked what she would do if attacked again by a Taliban gunman.

“I would tell him how important education is and that I would even want education for your children as well,” the Pakistani girl said. “That’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.”

Watch below the video of The story of Malala Yousafzai told by The Times’s Adam B. Ellick, who made a 2009 documentary about her before she was an international star.

And, watch below the actual 2009 documentary.

Drone attacks in Pakistan:

The United States government has made hundreds of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) controlled by the American Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division. Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Northwest Pakistan. These strikes were begun by President George W. Bush and have increased substantially under President Barack Obama. Some media refer to the series of attacks as a “drone war”.

Until very recently, the U.S. had officially denied the extent of its policy; in May 2013 it acknowledged for the first time that U.S. citizens had been killed in the strikes. Surveys have shown that the strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, where they have contributed to a negative perception of the United States.

There is a contentious and ongoing debate regarding the number of civilian and militant casualties caused by the strikes.

US Drone Strike Statistics estimate according to the New America Foundation (As of 30 September 2013) Source:wikipedia