Malala Yousafzai: A Symbol of Hope

I just finished Malala Yousafzai’s book I am Malala, and it has made me thankful for what I take for granted as well as inspired me to become more informed about the events occurring in the world today.

For those who don’t know who Malala is, she advocates for the right of education for girls. In many areas of the world, women aren’t supposed to be educated and people can be murdered if they teach girls, or are girls themselves and learning.

In 2012, Malala was shot by the Taliban while she was on a school bus. She was 16. In her book, she discusses a variety of things, not just the tragic event of being shot but the experience of growing up in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, her beliefs in rights for education for every child, and in general, her values and opinions.

It is one of the most inspirational and heartbreaking things I have ever read. Something she said in her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which can be found here, that I found striking was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOqIotJrFVM , “I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is not.”

Where Malala used to live and where many other girls around the world live currently, the act of educating girls is shunned. It is seen as corruptive, destructive, and plain evil. Malala makes a point to state that Islam is not a religion that encourages this sort of sexism, but instead it is the culture that has permeated the many countries where Islam is the dominant religion.

In Malala’s case, she was lucky to grow up with a father that is just as involved in women’s rights as she is now (in fact, he is what inspired her to do what she does). She was taught that it was her right to an education.

When the Taliban arrived in her valley in 2005, and gradually struck out basic rights such as listening to the radio, being out after a certain time, and education for women, her father encouraged them to keep fighting for their rights through speeches and interviews.

A journalist even got Malala to write an anonymous online blog that documented her experience living in a Taliban-controlled area.

On a warm evening in 2012, as she was riding the school bus, some men from the Taliban stopped the bus and demanded to know who Malala was. Before she could answer, she was shot along with two of her other classmates (who, thankfully, survived).

Because of her growing reputation among foreign countries, including the United States, for her outspokenness and advocacy, she received aid from multiple well-known hospitals that saved her life. If she had stayed in the hospital in Pakistan, it would be likely that she wouldn’t have lived or would have serious impairments.

People all over the world, celebrities and presidents and prime ministers, wanted Malala to live and became fascinated with her and her story.

Malala now lives in Birmingham, UK with her family, where she continues to extend her influence, hoping to get the rest of the world interested in fighting for women’s right to an education in the suppressed regions like the one she grew up in.

She still goes to school, and hopes to return to Pakistan one day. She would like to get into politics, and I wouldn’t blame her, given her own government’s lack of action when the Taliban overtook them. I can’t help but wonder what she thinks of some of the things going on today.

The Islamic extremist groups ISIS, Boko Haram, and Al-Qaeda are all groups most people are familiar with. Boko Haram is a more recently formed group that dominates Nigeria and is responsible for the kidnapping of hundreds of girls from schools, murders of students and polio vaccine distributors, and the burning down of the entire town of Baga earlier this year.

Like all of the other groups, they formed in the midst of political turmoil and claim their mission is to “purify society” through their extremely strict and often misguided interpretations of the Quran and implementation of Sharia law.

It infuriates me that murder and the suppression of education, medical practices, and simple acts of dancing or laughing (yes laughing) is deemed to make society more pure in their minds. It is a perspective I will never come close to understanding, and neither will many who live in the cities and towns where their dominance strikes fear and submission into their daily lives.

In early March of this year, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau pledged alliance to ISIS in an audio statement. When I first heard that I felt like two tornadoes were combining to create a monster storm.

It’s easy to feel depressed knowing that these groups seem to only be increasing their power. Of course we can say “Well why don’t their governments stop them?” It’s a lot harder to do, however, and Malala’s book shows just how quickly her area was overtaken by the Taliban while their government stood idly by.

That’s not to say that we should step in and try to make everything better.   For example, more drone strikes, in my opinion, would worsen the conflict and they take too many innocent lives. In reality, the issue is more complicated and trickier to handle than I would have thought before reading Malala’s perspective.

In the midst of all of the stories we hear of terrorism and radical groups performing heinous acts and trying to limit the rights of women, Malala is a symbol of hope.

The Taliban shot her in the head, hoping to subdue her message and inflict fear into others.

They failed.

Malala showed me that your age or wealth or location does not have to limit what you want to accomplish in the world. She wanted to make her voice known and advocate for something she values so greatly;  education, which I take for granted.

She has already made the world a better place, but if the world was full of even more Malalas, I can’t imagine the problems that we would strike down.

Malala Yousafzai: A Symbol of Hope a Media Matters @ WFHS post

Malala Yousafzai: A Symbol of Hope a Media Matters @ WFHS post