By Zulfiqar Ali Malik
Who is Malala?
Exactly one year ago, the world witnessed a tragic incident as a teenage girl was shot in the head by the Taliban while she was on her way to school. Miraculously, she survived the headshot and a also survived a bullet aimed at the neck. People know that she was shot by Taliban but they forget the reason why they shot her. She was not a leader, she was not fighting them, she was not in the Army, she was not American, in fact she was a Pashtoon girl, from the very own bloodlines on Taliban themselves. They shot her because she had spoken openly against them and how they suppress the women and the basic right to education. She started writing her dairy for BBC Urdu at the age of 11 in which she explained her life under the threat of Taliban and how hard it is to continue education with Taliban threat. She appeared on a documentary to encourage the local women to continue education. That made them put a bullet into the innocent girl.
On January 5th, 2009, Malala wrote in her diary,
“I was getting ready for school and about to wear my uniform when I remembered that our principal had told us not to wear uniforms and come to school wearing normal clothes instead.
“So I decided to wear my favourite pink dress. Other girls in school were also wearing colourful dresses. During the morning assembly we were told not to wear colourful clothes as the Taliban would object to it.”
It takes guts to speak against Taliban in Pakistan, especially when you are in the KPK and particularly when you are in Swat or Tribal areas where Taliban have a stronger influence. Whosoever speaks against Taliban is shot no matter if he is a religious scholar or a political leader. Taliban do not hesitate to attack even if you are Benzair or Maj. Gen. Niazi. They don’t care if it is the GHQ or an Air Base or a dockyard owned by the armed forces. This fear has prevented many politicians to speak against them. Maybe that’s why most of the people think that his chances to win the next elections are fading away with the passage of each day. In short if a girl does what most of the heavily guarded leaders fear to do and openly speaks against Taliban, it will surely provoke them to commit such a cowardly act of firing a bullet. No Muslim or Mujahid can commit such a cowardly act and this is understood by the Muslim community globally.
What did she do?
At such a young age, Malala did what most of the people fail to do during their entire lifetime. She ignited a fire worldwide about the education of children and girls around the world which is certainly commendable because education of a woman is the education of a nation. There are more than 57 million uneducated children around the world. Malala Yousafzai made a moving speech on her 16th Birthday which was celebrated at the United Nations. A day which will now be celebrated every year as annual Malala Day. In response to her speech at the UN, the president of General Assembly said “Today we stand united with young people from nearly one hundred countries in seeking to ensure that no child is barred from attending school — convinced that factors like geography, gender, disability, language, wealth, and ethnicity, should not be seen as impediments to this achievement.”
Other than this, 3 Million people have signed the Malala petition which is again a huge achievement and this petition was first signed by Malala herself. The petition urges the UN to take steps for the Children’s education at the global level making the primary education must for all the children across the globe. Her courage is iconic and is being celebrated globally.
She has given the message of peace and forgiveness. A practice which is ignored by nations and leaders of global level is being preached by a teenager. That is the reason world is celebrating her because with the approach of education, peace, tranquility and forgiveness, the world can be lead to peace and can be brought out of conflict. By waging a war against illiteracy, terrorism and extremism, she is actually being brave than many armies over the course of history.
Malala is a messenger of peace for the world as she is giving the ideology which is wanted by everyone today, and that is to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. She has urged the children globally not to take anything for granted and has taught a way to ask for the rights. The basic rights are the right to live and the right to education. Another achievement of this young girl was to make the UN recommit to the millennium development goal 2 which states that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
A reply to conspiracy theorists
Pakistan is a nation full of conspiracy theorists. World knows Pakistan as a terrorist state and the international image of Pakistan is poor and getting bad to worse every day. Instead of countering the global allegations, Pakistanis are busy in destroying their image and making it even worse. Social media is a free media yet controlled and dominated by the conspiracy theorists who feel tempted to post anything without any research which is likely to get public attention.
We should not forget that the world knows Pakistan as a country which gave safe heaven to the most wanted personality, Osama bin Laden for six years. Pakistanis refuse to accept the fact that Osama was found and killed here, even if the Taliban themselves are acknowledging the fact. Everywhere on social media, public perception is that Malala is a fraud and a drama. Instead of celebrating Malala day, calling it a National holiday, feeling proud that Gordon Brown, Ban ki Moon, Barrack Obama and other world leaders feel proud to meet her and how she has the guts to speak against terrorism which is ruining our country from more than a decade now, we prefer to call her an agent of the west.
Pakistanis would not like to acknowledge the fact that Malala was hit by bullets. Taken to many hospitals and checked by many doctors including the doctors of Pakistan Army before finally taken to the UK and yet nobody has denied officially or unofficially that she was hit. All the doctors, staff, paramedics, locals and all the witness accounts testify that the event of October 2012 was true and did take place in Swat yet we refuse to accept. It is saddening to see that a public perception is that she is defaming Pakistan and yet they fail to give a single solid reason. The Pakistani nation follows trends. In the elections recently, the trend was to follow Imran Khan ignoring everyone else. This is the same nation which was desperate to get rid of Nawaz Sharif in 1999. This was the same nation which celebrated the arrival of Musharraf exactly 14 years ago today on 12th October 1999. This nation then celebrated the arrival of PPP in 2008 and later when was fed against PPP, again wanted Musharraf back. It is not being long since Zardari resigned but some elements are already missing him and have started to compare his performance with Nawaz Sharif giving “reasons” how he was better than Nawaz Sharif.
Such a nation and its mentality is highly unlikely to be changed by technology, social media or globalization. The only way to change this nation is Malala’s way and that is education to the grass root level of the nation. Even Imran Khan failed to bring a change because he is good with speeches and playing with the emotions of the nation but on the ground he failed clearly. The world is celebrating Malala while we are cursing her. It is actually not cursing that teenager but cursing ourself as a nation.
When Malala says that she wants to become prime minister of Pakistan one day, that is a teenager’s dream and how she is confident in herself for bringing a change and somebody has to step up to change this nation because from decades, we have been living and kept in darkness. One day she will win the Nobel Prize for Pakistan and will earn more than just that for this nation. A nation which refuses to hear, acknowledge and accept the truth as far worse than a dead nation.