MALALA YOUSUFZAI
The Most Courageous
(& Famous)
16 Year Old Girl in the
world
This
Brave, young girl, Malala Yousafzai, of Pakistan, is really, really a rare
species, from Pakistan.
In
regard to the Burkha (veil), which her mother also wears always, Malala says
this : My mother used to tell me when going to market, “cover your face; cover
your face; see, that man is looking at you;
this man is looking at you...” and so on..
Malala
told her mother, “but, Mom, I am also looking at them.”
Isn’t
this a simple, stark fact? I don’t know why Muslim men who want to cover their
women in Burkha do not see this reality; this other side of who is looking at
whom and who is not!
In
India, the government would probably say, see, this is the personal law of the
Muslim men that gives them the right to cover their women in Burkha.
But,
how come, no one ever thought of this point of view of Malala? May be, the
Muslim women know the contradiction in this practice all the time..but, they
can’t help it one way or the other.
Malala
says,
“they (the Al Queda Men)
could only shoot my body, not my spirit ; not my ideas; now, I know my ideas
will live always, so many supporters are there in so many countries.
Earlier, I was afraid of
death; but, now I am no more afraid of death....”
”in Pakistan, women are
encouraged to become Doctors or teachers..not anything else....but, I want to
become a Politician..I want to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan..a Doctor
for my entire nation...that way, I can cure an entire nation...”
I
heard this interview with Malala Yousafzai
just today and it was really, really, refreshing..all original thoughts...all
forward looking.. So, I went on to search on Youtube and found her other speeches
and interviews, some of which I heard. I do wish to hear her other interviews
and speeches soon.
She
speaks beautiful, sweet, simple English.
She
says, Taliban must tell the world what
they want to do. Killing people the way Taliban is doing is not Islam.
People
of Pakistan did rise up against the shooters of Malala and in favour of Malala.
Malala is thankful to all of them. She
wants to go back to Pakistan, after getting education in college and University
and make herself more powerful to face the unjust practices in Pakistan.
She
says –
She loves physics because
it tells us all truths and laws about how the universe functions.
Education of all children
is important for her .
Reasons for Parents not
educating their children, according to her, are – No.1 is Poverty – those children
in Pakistan have to do child labour, earn for family; Second is -cultural norms;
in the name of religion, people are not educating girls. We can and must change
their mindset, she says.
Malala
has a fantastic theory for dealing with terrorists. She says - Terrorists are doing their job easily; They
are changing others’ mindsets easily. Why can’t we? We must also struggle hard, harder than the Taliban
to change their mindsets.
She
says
-
It is the duty of every person. If I
cannot do anything else in any better way – I can at least speak. Let us
support the cause of education..education is the only solution.
-Fighting terrorism is not
through Guns. Much money is spent on guns, tanks etc. We need to spend the same
money on books and schools. She says, organizations and Governments are
spending huge moneys on Aids and many health issues etc. But, if same money is
spent on education, we would be enabling people to take care of themselves very
easily.
She
appeals to all people and organizations - Work
for education for every child. Take education seriously.
Reflecting
on her own personal life – she tells all - If
you want to stay at the top, you must struggle hard; work hard;
Reflecting
on how life was back in her village in Pakistan – she says, life was so beautiful and peaceful; then, the villains came; they
snatched our normal life....If you hear no one is killed today, that is the
news in Pakistan now.
She
says - I am just dreaming now – that every
girl and every boy is going to school. Today’s dream becomes tomorrow’s reality.
If you are honest and sincere to the world, the whole world will be true and
sincere to you......Make education your top priority. With education, they can
fight all other issues themselves.
She goes on like this. Absolute clarity marks her
every word. She was born on 12th, July, 1997 in a terrorist infested
province of Pakistan. She is 16 now. But, her fight for her own education and
for women education in general started from age 11.
On
9 October 2012, two Taliban Gunmen came to her school, found her leaving in a
school bus,(she calls it Dyna) and shot her in the head and neck – to kill her.
She thought she was dead. She had fainted and was seriously injured. It was
with great difficulty and with lots of help from people in Pakistan and
England, that she was restored to normal health in a Hospital in England. When
she came back to life, she thought she was waking up from a dream. She loved to
go back to school again. So, she joined a school in England – which was so different
from Pakistan. She says - it is rare for girl children to get opportunity to go
to school in Pakistan.
Many
things have happened to her in her life, since she was shot by the Taliban. Many
people rallied around her and ensured that her voice is heard all over the
world. This year, she missed the Nobel Peace Prize by a hair breadth –
probably. But, she will continue to be in the reckoning for the prize in future
years also. She has spoken at the UN; she was featured on Time Magazine ; She
has spoken on many TV channels and international media – all on her cherished,
dream topic of Education and especially, women’s right to education.
Her
fight has a long way to go. There is no need to mention here all her trials and
tribulations. It is there all over the Internet. She has undergone enough
suffering. She has faced the deadliest assaults on her. But, this assault has
strengthened her resolve to fight for her cherished goals of women’s education
and education for all children.
We
must understand that - Pakistan is not all Taliban. There are so many humane, Muslim
Clerics and humane Muslims in its
population. We understand that, on 12 October, a number of Islamic clerics came
together in Pakistan to issue a fatwa against her
assaulters. But then, Taliban is undeterred by these fatwas and has reiterated
its intention to kill her and her father too, for supporting her so totally.
As
many people say – Pakistan is at war with itself, with its own home-grown
terrorists. Tackling these terrorists is not as easy as Malala thinks. They won’t
read, and they won’t allow others to read as well. In fact, the whole Islamic
world seems torn between moderates (who are the vast, silent majority) and the
fundamentalists and terrorists (who are the aggressive minority).Tackling the
fundamentalists and terrorists requires many approaches.
Educating
the child is of course the most important way – of weaning the child away from
fundamentalism and terrorism. But, education has to be secular, logical,
analytical and humane – so that the educated child knows how to look at
religion – in fact, at all religions.
Today,
in religion, it is my way or the High way – with these fundamentalists and
terrorists. No one tries to look at other religions with respect and curiosity,
which are the minimum requirements to understand the other religions. There are
practices in every religion – which are inhuman and illogical. Some criticism
must be permitted and supported by the moderates, if religions have to become
really humane.
But,
the fear of THE BOOK, fear of the GOD, fear of HELL, and more importantly, fear
of the priest – make even the most logical persons to shy away from criticizing
the inhuman and illogical practices in their respective religions. In Islamic world,
these are more accentuated. A Christian, a Hindu or a Buddhist can look at his
religion logically, criticize it and get away with it. But, not a Muslim. This
is the problem, despite the fact that the vast majority among Muslims are
Moderates. This is because, the fundamentalists and terrorists use force,
violence, and punishment, at will, and they come together to form powerful
groups, while moderates remain in disarray always.
Malala
says, the terrorists should tell us what they want to do and want to achieve.
While this is not easy – it is definitely easier to educate every child into
secular, logical, humane education. It is high time that every nation
understands the best practices of every religion, rather than confining itself
to its own religion. For instance, Many in Islam and Christianity think that
Hinduism is all about Idol Worship and that there are many Gods according to
Hinduism. This is absolutely false.
Hinduism
accepts essentially, an imageless, formless supreme entity only – but, for
attaining to that supreme entity, we can use different types of methods, each
suitable to our particular mindset. An evolved person in Hinduism actually sees
God within himself – which doesn’t mean he looks down on others. He sees the
supreme entity in himself and in all that is around him. Hinduism suggests many,
many different paths of worship. And, these are most ancient and highly logical. Instead of
studying them and understanding them, other religions indulge in conversions,
and idol breaking etc.
This
is what Gandhiji also pointed out in many of his speeches and writings. The
purpose of mentioning this here is – Education must free our mind from all
fears, from all absurdly illogical assumptions – and yet rise above logic to - see
the truths beyond the physical world, experience them personally and
individually and attain to the highest level that the supreme entity ( call it
by any name you want) is beckoning us to attain. The priest of any religion –
is not the best mediator required between us and the supreme entity.
* *
* E N
D * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment