The people who live in northern Mali often have had no formal schooling. They need to be helped up to another level, where at least they can achieve a degree of education and see that they have their freedom and gain an understanding of the process of achieving that freedom. Also, crucially, it needs to be made evident that in Mali women play a prominent role in society yet are now being pushed backwards in their development by bullying invaders who insist that women should not be educated. Of late, it has been inspiring to observe the leaps forward that are being made in Africa, changes in which women have been very much on the front line. But these people want to return women to the Dark Ages. Timbuktu, the principal city in northern Mali, is historically a place of reference in the Sahel, an iconic name, home to Africa's earliest university. Sadly, people who live there, and whose lives were starting to progress, are now living under a reign of terror.
Until only last year people of the region were improving their lives through education; and women were getting their rights to raise their voices and enter into politics, offering their opinion of how to develop Africa. But now such plans for development have had to be put on one side: all the positive policies that were declared as the millennium goals for Africa will be delayed.
cannot wait to allow this to escalate: the situation is already desperate. Last year women of Africa met in Mali to celebrate International Woman's Day: not to play drums and sing but to evaluate the position of women in Africa now. Why did they chose Mali? Because the nature of the country made it very sympathetic to such thinking. Now that has become impossible: this annexation of the north of the country is destroying the Moreover, many people have ?ed intellectually astute role that Mali had northern Mali, but are now living in carved out for itself. refugee camps, their normal daily lives But to get rid of a problem, you have to utterly disrupted. If you are a refugee, discover what the roots of it are. Who you are not in control of your life. It really are these invaders? What is becomes very dif?cult to look after crucial is to ?nd out why they are yourself and your children without really doing this. Who is bene?ting autonomy. It diminishes your vision of from this situation? yourself when you cannot work and feed your family. We must create a strong plan to overcome these dif?culties: to bring But those militants who have usurped back peace, and return people to their power in northern Mali have no homes. And once again to give power [?\?\?[??? Z\?X?[??Y??X? ? H?[ \?K[? ??YHY X?][??\?[?]?Y X[ ??? ^H]?H?Y[??? H [?[???[?\?][?? ?[[?Y???H[ Z\? ?Y?\?[??H ?[? ? ?]?\?][?? ^H\?H[???XX?HXX[[????H Z\??[Z[Y\?8?$?[??XY \?H?[??][?HX??]?XX?HXX[ ?Y?Y?Y\?]?H?Y[?XYH ? ?\?H ?\?H\??]?Y?K???]\?[\\?]]?H ] HY??X?[?[?[? ??]\? ?] H[?]Y?][??X?[[YYX][ K?H ????X[H\??YH ??\? MHZ[[? [?H[?] ? H?YH??[? ?H? ??YH? H ?? ?;? [?\?]\?X?X[??]\?X?X[?????HX[H[?? YN?\??H?Y?^[???[?H?[?K?[Y??Z]KX?X???]K[XY?H ?X\?X[K?[[?H?[??\?K?X?H?\?????[KY?\??H?\?H[????XH ?[?B??