12. Why the Taliban fears Teenage Girls

This article is about the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, a fourteen year old who is a well known advocate for female education. She was shot in the neck on the way home to school and the group responsible for this, the Pakistani Taliban, openly took the responsibility and claimed that she was "guilty of promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas." Yousafzai was brought to the hospital and the bullet was removed from her head, but the Taliban has promised that if she recovers, they will try to kill her again. The article explains how she became known for blogging about life under the Taliban at the age of eleven and how she was awarded a National Youth Peace Prize last year. According to the author, a teenage girl speaking for female education is one of the scariest things for the Taliban. He says that if there were more people like Malala Yousafzai, who are advocates of progress, education and enlightenment, the Taliban would have no future. The substance of Yousafazai's ideas are what really frightens the Taliban. Studies have shown that educating girls is the closest solution for countries that suffer from poverty, instability and general inequity. It is in a country with these conditions that groups like the Taliban thrive. For the ideas of Malala Yousafazai to spread would have meant the possible end of the Taliban.
The author of this article is William J. Dobson and he does an excellent job in getting his point across. The main purpose of this article was to explain why terrorist groups like the Taliban are scared of feminist teenagers, and through examples and statistics, he does exactly that. Dobson uses a formal tone to talk about the young Malala Yousafzai and through the statistics and research he did about the positive effects of female in education in society the reader knows that his information is valid and that this article is not solely based on opinions and theories. Dobson is also writing to an older audience, who knows about the situation in Pakistan and how oppressed the people are. This article was a success in terms of explaining why the Taliban fears teenage girls.