Many girls stop attending Malala’s school due to threats, media attention

MINGORA: Most of the girls have stopped attending the school where Malala Yousafzai was studying as the parents and students were not comfortable with the extraordinary attention of the media and the threats given to the institution, the school administration said.

When contacted, the school Principal Miss Maryam confirmed the threats given to the school after the attack on Malala and her schoolmates, Shazia and Kainat on October 9. She added the school administration had banned coverage of the schoolgirls in media as a good number of girls had stopped attending the school after the incident and due to the attention given to it in the media.

The principal said certain girls had taken admission in other schools as they were scared and offended by the media intrusion. “Due to this reason we are not allowing the media to approach the students,” she added.

The administrator of the school Iqbal Hussain said that because of the media attention the school was earning a bad name and Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Malala Yousafzai, had instructed them not to allow the media to interfere in the school affairs and do coverage during the teaching hours as this disturbed the students.

The News