Support Education, get your tits out..

[Gob]

Madge tries too hard, yet again....

By now, we’ve all heard about the horrific shooting of Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai.

The extreme response to the 14-year old’s plea to receive an education has received global attention and condemnation, but more significantly, it has mounted a fierce response within Pakistan itself. Understandably, there has been an outpouring of support and grief for this brave girl.

To recap, last week, masked militants in Pakistan stopped a school bus transporting Yousafzai. A man demanded Malala present herself, threatening to shoot all the passengers if she didn’t speak up. According to reports, the man said: “She is propagating against the soldiers of Allah, the Taliban. She must be punished.”

Punish her they did, shooting the teenager twice in the head at close range. Yousafzai survived but, at the time of writing, remains in critical condition.

The Taliban’s accusation is that Yousafzai is “promoting Western thinking” by advocating the right to go to school. It’s a trip into the disturbing for those of us who take this right as a given.

So it’s perhaps in the poorest of taste that Madonna has chosen to highlight this gender inequity in Pakistan by stripping down at a concert last week. According to news reports, Madonna took a time-out in her MDNA concert to raise awareness about Yousafzai's plight.

Ripping into the Taliban, Madonna paused musical proceedings to have a “serious talk” about “the 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot on a schoolbus for writing a blog about how important education was to her”.


“'The Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. Do you understand the sickness and absurdity of this?”

We sure do. But in what many have deemed a crass move, Madonna then dedicated ‘Human Nature’ to Yousafzai before launching into a striptease in her honour. And in case anyone mistook the move as a self-indulgent stunt, Madonna revealed the name ‘Malala’ tattooed in big letters across her back.

At some point, Madonna reportedly also shouted “Support education! Support women!”

The latter message is not only appropriate, but completely proportionate to what occurred given Yousafzai’s activism was a plea for education. The stripping, I daresay, was not, and arguably trivialised a situation so serious someone’s life hangs in the balance because of it.

Surely there are more dignified ways to bring this issue to the hearts and minds of her fans? After all, having one of the world’s most identifiable pop stars on your cause should be a win. But given the Taliban’s pre-occupation with and hatred of anything “Western”, one might argue that Madonna is in fact damaging this girl’s cause.

Think about it: young Muslim girl in a headscarf wants an education. Madonna shows support by stripping.

She may as well be delivering the Taliban a huge, resounding “eff-you”, because she’s liberated enough to show skin and demand girls get an education. No matter the intention behind it, it’s a thoughtless act given the context of Yousafzai’s plight, with Madonna playing directly into the Taliban’s complaint that Western values are polluting Pakistani girls’ minds.

Not surprisingly, Twitter exploded with disapproval, with people condemning the act as cheap stunt.

[Lord Jim]

arguably trivialised a situation so serious someone’s life hangs in the balance because of it.

Ya think?

Is there nothing that this woman will not exploit for publicity?

[oldr_n_wsr]

She could have quietly thrown money at the girls bills, and whatever cause supported by the young lady. (And maybe Madonna did, I don't know).

[MajGenl.Meade]

It's just jeux en bustier