‘You can, if you
believe you can’. They proved it. They are from ordinary families. They may be
our next door neighbors. KDB salutes them. ‘Malala’- the girl with books… ‘KDB
Change Maker’ of the issue.
Written by Amitava
Dutta.
A 15
year old Pakistani girl was riding home on a bus after taking an exam in
Pakistan’s Swat Valley. A masked gunman approached the bus and shouted:
“Which
one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all”
..and then, on her being identified,
shot at her.
Yes,
this young phenomenal lady is none other than Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist who was hit with one
bullet, which went through her head, neck and ended in her shoulder. The sole
reason behind this heinous crime, is nothing grave but only that Malala wrote a
blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban
occupation, their attempts to take control of the valley,
improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, for intensive
rehabilitation. The assassination attempt sparked a national and
international outpouring of support for Yousafzai.
and her views on
promoting education for girls in the Swat Valley. In the days immediately
following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but
later her condition
 |
| Mallala at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham |
Born on 12th July,
1997 in the Swat District of Pakistan, Malala was keenly interested in women
empowerment since an early age. Her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is a poet,
school owner, and an educational activist himself, running a chain of schools
known as the Khushal Public School had encouraged his daughter to become a
politician, Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely
special, permitting her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her
two brothers had been sent to bed. Yousafzai started speaking about education
rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her
to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. “How dare the
Taliban take away my basic right to education?” Yousafzai asked her audience in
a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region.
In late 2008, when
Aamer Ahmed Khan of the BBC Urdu website and his colleagues had
discussed a novel way of covering the Taliban’s growing influence
in Swat: ‘Why not find a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life
there?’ Their correspondent in Peshawar, Abdul Hai Kakar, had been in
touch with a local school teacher, Ziauddin Yousafzai, but couldn’t find
any students willing to do it. It was too dangerous, their families said.
Finally, Yousafzai suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala. At the
time, Taliban militants led by Maulana Fazlullah were taking over the
Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls’ education and women from going
shopping. Bodies of beheaded policemen were being hung in town squares. At
first, a girl named Aisha from her father's school agreed to write a diary, but
then the girl's parents stopped her from doing it because they feared Taliban
reprisals. The only alternative was Yousafzai, four years younger than the
original volunteer, and in seventh grade at the time. Editors at the BBC
unanimously agreed.
“We had been
covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn’t know much
about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban,” Mirza Waheed, the former
editor of BBC Urdu, said. Because they were concerned about Yousafzai’s safety,
BBC editors insisted that she use a pseudonym. Her blog was published under the
byline “Gul Makai” a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale.
On 3 January 2009,
Yousafzai’s first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog. She would hand-write
notes and then pass them on to a reporter who would scan and e-mail
them. The blog records Yousafzai’s thoughts during the First Battle
of Swat, as military operations take place, fewer girls show up to school, and
finally, her school shuts down.
In Mingora, the
Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January
2009. The group had already blown up more than a hundred girls’ schools. The
night before the ban took effect was filled with the noise of artillery fire,
waking Yousafzai several times. The following day, Yousafzai also read for the
first time excerpts from her blog that had been published in a local newspaper.
BANNED FROM
SCHOOL
After the ban, the
Taliban continued to destroy schools in the area. Five days later in her blog,
Yousafzai wrote that she was still studying for her exams: “Our annual exams
are due after the vacations but this will only be possible if the Taliban allow
girls to go to school. We were told to prepare certain chapters for the exam
but I do not feel like studying.”
“It seems that it
is only when dozens of schools have been destroyed and hundreds others closed
down that the army thinks about protecting them. Had they conducted their
operations here properly, this situation would not have arisen.”
[Malala Yousafzai
24 January 2009 BBC blog entry]
In February 2009,
girls' schools were still closed. In solidarity, private schools for boys had
decided not to open until 9 February, and notices appeared saying so. On 7
February, Yousafzai and a brother returned to their hometown of Mingora, where
the streets were deserted, and there was an “eerie silence”. “We went to the
supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it
used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed”, she wrote in
her blog. Their home had been robbed and their television was stolen.
After boys'
schools reopened, the Taliban lifted restrictions on girls’ primary education,
where there was co-education. Girls-only schools were still closed.
Yousafzai wrote that only 70 pupils attended, out of 700 pupils who were
enrolled. On 15 February, gunshots could be heard in the streets of Mingora,
but Yousafzai’s father reassured her, saying “don't be scared – this is firing
for peace”.
Her father had read in the newspaper that the government and the
militants were going to sign a peace deal the next day. Later that night, when
the Taliban announced the peace deal on their FM Radio studio,
another round of stronger firing started outside. Yousafzai spoke out
against the Taliban on the national current affairs show Capital
Talk on 18 February. Three days later, local Taliban leader Maulana
Fazlulla announced on his FM radio station that he was lifting the ban on
women's education, and girls would be allowed to attend school until exams were
held on 17 March, but they had to wear burqas
 |
| On the eve of the journey towards sun |
On 25 February,
Yousafzai wrote on her blog that she and her classmates “played a lot in class
and enjoyed ourselves like we used to before”. Attendance at Yousafzai’s
class was up to 19 of 27 pupils by 1 March, but the Taliban were still active
in the area. Shelling continued, and relief goods meant for displaced people
were looted. Only two days later, Yousafzai wrote that there was a
skirmish between the military and Taliban, and the sounds of mortar shells
could be heard: “People are again scared that the peace may not last for long.
Some people are saying that the peace agreement is not permanent, it is just a
break in fighting.”
On 9 March,
Yousafzai wrote about a science paper that she performed well on, and added
that the Taliban were no longer searching vehicles as they once did. Her blog
ended on 12 March 2009.
After the BBC
diary ended, Yousafzai and her father were approached by New York
Times reporter Adam B. Ellick about filming a
documentary. In May, the Pakistani Armymoved into the region to
regain control during the Second Battle of Swat. Mingora was evacuated and
Yousafzai’s family
was displaced and separated. Her father went
to Peshawar to protest and lobby for support, while she was sent into the
countryside to live with relatives. “I’m really bored because I have no books
to read,” Yousafzai is filmed saying in the documentary.
 |
| TIME magazine: 100 most influential people |
That month, after
criticizing militants at a press conference, Yousafzai's father received a
death threat over the radio by a Taliban commander. Yousafzai was deeply
inspired in her activism by her father. That summer, for the first time, she
committed to becoming a politician and not a doctor, as she had once aspired to
be.
“I have a new
dream ... I must be a politician to save this country. There are so many crises
in our country. I want to remove these crises.”
[Malala Yousafzai
Class Dismissed (documentary)]
By early July,
refugee camps were filled to capacity. The prime minister made a long-awaited
announcement saying that it was safe to return to the Swat Valley. The
Pakistani military had pushed the Taliban out of the cities and into the
countryside. Yousafzai's family reunited, and on 24 July 2009 they headed home.
They made one stop first – to meet with a group of
other grassroots activists that had been invited to see United States
President Barack Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and
Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke. Yousafzai pleaded with Holbrooke to intervene
in the situation, saying, "Respected ambassador, if you can help us in our
education, so please help us." When her family finally did return home,
they found it had not been damaged, and her school had sustained only light
damage.
“I am convinced
Socialism is the only answer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a
victorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of bigotry and
exploitation.”
[Malala
Yousafzai's message to the 32nd congress of the Pakistani section of IMT]
Following the
documentary, Yousafzai was interviewed on the national Pashto-language
station AVT Khyber, the Urdu-language Daily Aaj, and
Canada’s Toronto Star. She made a second appearance on Capital
Talk on 19 August 2009. Her BBC blogging identity was being revealed in
articles by December 2009. She also began appearing on television to publicly
advocate for female education.
In October
2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African activist, nominated
Yousafzai for the International Children's Peace Prize of the Dutch
international children's advocacy group Kids Rights Foundation. She was
the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award. The announcement said,
“Malala dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and
international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to
go to school”. The award was won by Michaela Mycroft of South Africa.
Her public profile
rose even further when she was awarded Pakistan's first National Youth
Peace Prize two months later in December. On 19 December 2011, Prime
Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani awarded her the National Peace Award for
Youth. At the proceedings in her honor, Yousafzai stated that she was not a
member of any political party, but hoped to found a national party of her own
to promote education. The prime minister directed the authorities to set
up an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women at Yousafzai's request,
and a secondary school was renamed in her honor. By 2012, Yousafzai was
planning to organize the Malala Education Foundation, which would help poor
girls go to school. In July of that year she participated in the national
Marxist Summer School, and delivered a message to the 32nd congress of the
Pakistani IMT which thanked them “for giving me a chance to speak
last year at their Summer Marxist School in Swat and also for introducing me to
Marxism and Socialism.”
THE ASSASSINATION..
The assassination
attempt on Malala received worldwide media coverage and produced an outpouring
of sympathy and anger. Protests against the shooting were held in several
Pakistani cities the day after the attack, and over 2 million people signed the
Right to Education campaign's petition, which led to ratification of the first
Right to Education Bill in Pakistan. Pakistani officials offered a 10
million rupee (US$105,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the
attackers.Responding to concerns about his safety, Yousafzai’s father said,
“We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an
ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices
through the force of bullets.”
Pakistan’s
president Asif Ali Zardari described the shooting as an attack on
“civilized people”. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a
“heinous and cowardly act”. U.S. President Barack Obama found
the attack “reprehensible, disgusting and tragic”, while Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said Yousafzai had been “very brave in standing
up for the rights of girls”
and that the attackers had been “threatened by that
kind of empowerment” British Foreign Secretary William Hague called
the shooting “barbaric” and that it had “shocked Pakistan and the world”.
 |
| Get Well Soon |
American
singer Madonna dedicated her song “Human Nature” to Yousafzai at a
concert in Los Angeles the day of the attack, as well had a temporary Malala
tattoo on her back. American actress Angelina Jolie wrote an
article about explaining the event to her children and answering questions like
“Why did those men think they needed to kill Malala?” Jolie later donated
$200,000 to The Malala Fund for girls’ education. Former First Lady of the
United States Laura Bush wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington
Post in which she compared Yousafzai
to Holocaust diarist Anne Frank. Indian director Amjad Khan
announced that he would be making a biographical film based on Malala
Yousafzai.
Ehsanullah Ehsan,
chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the
attack, saying that “Yousafzai is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity,”
adding that if she survived, the group would target her again. In the days
following the attack, the Taliban reiterated its justification, saying
Yousafzai had been brainwashed by her father: “We warned him several times to
stop his daughter from using dirty language against us, but he didn't listen
and forced us to take this extreme step”. The Taliban also justified its attack
as part of religious scripture, stating that the Quran says that
“people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed”, going on
to say that “Sharia says that even a child can be killed if he is
propagating against Islam”.
On 12 October
2012, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā – a
ruling of Islamic law – against the Taliban gunmen who tried to kill Yousafzai.
Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council publicly denounced
attempts by the Pakistani Taliban to mount religious justifications for the
shooting of Yousafzai and two of her classmates.
Although the
attack was roundly condemned in Pakistan, ‘some fringe Pakistani political
parties and extremist outfits’ have aired conspiracy theories, such as the
shooting being staged by the American Central Intelligence Agency in
order to provide an excuse for continuing drone attacks. The
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and some other pro-Taliban elements branded Yousafzai
as an ‘American spy’.
ACTIVISM
CONTINUED..
Yousafzai spoke
before the United Nations in July 2013, and met Queen Elizabeth II
in Buckingham Palace. In September she spoke at Harvard
University, and in October she met with U.S. President Barack Obama
and his family; during that meeting, she confronted him on his use
of drone strikes in Pakistan.
In December she addressed
the Oxford Union. In July 2014 Yousafzai spoke at the Girl Summit in
London, advocating for rights for girls.In October 2014, after receiving
the World Children's Prize for the rights of the child
in Mariefred, Sweden, she announced donating $50,000 through
the UNRWA, to rebuild 65 schools in Gaza.
Former British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown arranged for Yousafzai’s appearance before the
United Nations in July 2013. Brown also requested
that McKinsey consultant Shiza Shahid, a friend of the Yousafzai
family, chair Malala's charity fund, which had gained the support
of Angelina Jolie. Google's vice president Megan Smith also
sits on the fund’s board.
In November 2012
the consulting firm Edelman began work for Yousafzai on a pro bono
basis, which according to the firm “involves providing a press office function
for Malala.” The office employs five people, and is headed by speechwriter
Jamie Lundie. McKinsey also continues to provide assistance to Yousafzai.
MALALA
DAY
On 12 July 2013,
Yousafzai's 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to
education. The UN dubbed the event "Malala Day". It was her first
public speech since the attack, leading the first ever Youth Takeover of the
UN, with an audience of over 500 young education advocates from around the
world.
“The terrorists
thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in
my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and
courage was born ... I am not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in
terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I'm
here to speak up for the right of education for every child. I want education
for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists.”
Yousafzai received
several standing ovations. Ban Ki-moon, who also spoke at the session,
described her as ‘our hero’. Yousafzai also presented the chamber with ‘The
Education
We Want’, a Youth Resolution of education demands written by
Youth for Youth, in a process coordinated by the UN Global Education First
Youth Advocacy Group, telling her audience:
 |
| Malala at 'Nobel Peace Center' |
“Malala day is not
my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have
raised their voice for their rights.”
On 10 October
2014, Yousafzai was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace
Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young
people and for the right of all children toeducation. At age 17, Yousafzai is
the youngest Nobel Prize laureate who has also won several other honourable
awards. Yousafzai shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi,
a children's rights activist from India. She is the second Pakistani
to receive a Nobel Prize, Abdus Salam being a 1979 Physics laureate,
and the only Pakistani winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
After she won the
Nobel Peace Prize, there was praise but also some disapproval of the decision
to award it to her. A Norwegian jurist, Fredrik Heffermehl, commented on
the winning of Malala's Nobel Prize: “This is not for fine people who have done
nice things and are glad to receive it. All of that is irrelevant. What Nobel
wanted was a prize that promoted global disarmament.”
Works
Yousafzai's memoir
I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by
the Taliban, co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb, was published
in October 2013
by Little, Brown and Company in the U.S. and by Weidenfeld
& Nicolson in the U.K. A reviewer for The Guardian called the book
‘fearless’ and stated that “the haters and conspiracy theorists would do well
to read this book”, though she criticized ‘the stiff, know-it-all voice of a
foreign correspondent’ that is interwoven with Yousafzai’s. This book is being
translated into Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi.
The All Pakistan
Private Schools Federation announced that the book would be banned in its
152,000 member institutions, stating that it disrespected Islam and could have
a ‘negative’ influence. Pakistani investigative editor Ansar Abbasi
described her work as “providing her critics something ‘concrete’ to prove her
as an 'agent' of the West against Islam and Pakistan”.
Amitava Dutta, M.Sc. student, RKMVU, F/C for IRTDM, Ranchi
E mail: amitava18dutta@gmail.com
(Photo: Different websites, Title design: Atanu Deb)
Amitava Dutta, M.Sc. student, RKMVU, F/C for IRTDM, Ranchi
E mail: amitava18dutta@gmail.com
(Photo: Different websites, Title design: Atanu Deb)
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