Queen Rania of Jordan delivers hard-hitting speech at Abu Dhabi Media Summit
Source: 7daysindubai.com
Education reform doesn’t come cheap. But the price of ignorance is far, far greater.
A minority of irreligious extremists is using social media to rewrite our narrative… hijack our identity and rebrand us; this is their version of the Arab world. Their plot. Their narrative. Their heroes. The rest of the World is listening and watching. These images don’t represent me any more than they represent you. They’re alien and abhorrent and should make every Arab seethe.
A story is told as much by silence as by speech.
Our silence speaks volumes. We are complicit in their success.
If ever there was a time to tap into that indignation… it is now.
For the sake of each one of us… for Islam and the Arab world… for the future of our young people, we must create a new narrative and broadcast it to the world. Because if we don’t decide what our identity is and what our legacy will be, the extremists will do it for us.
If we don’t author our story, theirs will endure.
The only way to save the region’s youth from the ‘siren’s call of extremism’ is to provide them with a better alternative.
We either develop our region, or we let others dismantle it.
Harness the tools to drive the Arab world forward in the 21st century, or let others use those tools to drag us back to the dark ages.
Education is key.
Our strategy must be long-term. Starts by investing in quality education for all…
When I say, ‘quality education for all,’ I mean girls as well as boys. Because educated girls strengthen their nations’ economies; prioritise the health and education of their own children; and help to build stable societies more resilient to radicalisation. Why else would Boko Haram, the Taliban and ISIS be so afraid of girls with books?
– Queen Rania ( Jordan { Amman } )
Akira Morikawa 