By Omar Bah
The First Lady Madam Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow has joined her fellow first ladies around the world to call for global unity and action to protect education from attacks amid ongoing conflicts.
The first ladies made the call recently at an international event held in Qatar’s capital Doha.
The event, organised by the Doha-based Education Above All (EAA) foundation, entitled “Education in Peril: The Human Cost of War,” marked on Monday the fifth observance of the September 9 International Day to Protect Education from Attack (IDPEA).
During the event, First Lady Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow, participated in a high-level panel which included Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak, Prime Minister of Yemen, the first lady of Sierra Leone Fatima Maada Bio, spouse of Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr Wan Azizah binti Wan Ismail, the first lady of Brazil Rosângela Lula da Silva, the first lady of Bosnia-Herzegovina Mirela Be?irovi?, the first lady of Greek Cypriot administration Philippa Karsera-Christodoulides, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine Varsen Aghabekian, Advisor to President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Saida Shavkatovna Mirziyoyeva, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Liberia Sara Beysolow Nyanti and Virginia Gamba, UN SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict.
In her opening keynote address, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, said education is the vessel that will carry children to a bright future.
“But attacks on education destroy the lives of teachers and students and leave nothing but emptiness, annihilating their future. There is no doubt that those who target education know what they are doing and do so with premeditation,” she said while calling for urgent global action to protect education from attack, particularly regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where Israel’s attacks brought education to a halt, raising fears of a lost generation.
“Gaza is being subjected to brutal bombardment – a genocide marked by massacres that are taking place every day. One of the most atrocious was the massacre of more than a hundred displaced Palestinians, killed as they took shelter in the Tab’een School in Al Daraj district,” Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said.
Sheikha Moza also criticised the international community for lack of action against Israel’s attacks on Gaza. “If a similar massacre was committed by another country in Asia or Africa, the international community would have rushed, with no hesitation, to condemn and sanction it.”
