“I tell my story not because it is unique,
but because it is the story of many girls.”
- Malala Yousafzai -
Imagine a world where you are banned from ever going to school. While your current education may not be the best--the environment making it a literal health hazard paired with the insufficient fundamental building blocks (for more information on this, see nearly every reflection for each post during Black History Month)--there is a very good chance that if you are reading this, you are currently enrolled in secondary or postsecondary school or have already graduated.
It may not have been the best, but you more than likely did have a nice place to go to learn, spend time with friends, and advance yourself academically in order to land your dream job in the future. For many young people in the world, that is the case. For one young woman, however, this was not always the case as her academic activism was paused for a brief moment when she was shot three times in the head.
This is her story: the story of Malala Yousafzai.
Malala Yousafzai’s (Muh-la-luh You-suhf-zye) story begins in Pakistan, a Middle Eastern country that shares a northern border with the infamous Afghanistan--”The Most Dangerous Country in the World'' according to a 2019 Business Insider article (1). Afghanistan is also home to the infamous war that has caused many political rifts since it’s conception in the early 2000s. Afghanistan even scores top marks on Vision of Humanity’s Global Terrorism Index (GTI) with a score of 9.6 out of 10 (2). While Pakistan may not be as dangerous as it’s northern neighbor, scoring two points below it with a GTI of 7.5, many of the dangers found in Afghanistan are very similar to those found in Pakistan. To top it off, women’s rights are hardly ever upheld in either country, something that a young Pakistani man named Ziauddin Yousafzai grew up critical of.
Growing up in Shangla, a small village in Northern Pakistan hosting mountainous scenery, plenty of homegrown food markets, extremely hot temperatures in the summer seasons, and heavy rainfall in autumn, Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala’s father, grew up “surrounded by patriarchy” (3). As he stated in a Time magazine article in 2019:
"I had five sisters and a brother and I saw how boys got better shoes, more clothes, and tastier cuts of chicken than the girls. I saw how my mother couldn’t go out unescorted, and, on documents like doctors’ prescriptions, was never referred to by her name - Maharo Bibi - but as mother of Ziauddin, or wife of Rohul Amin. And, worst of all, I saw how I got to go to school, while my sisters stayed home, crippling their future. I was very determined that if I ever got to be a father, I’d be different." (3)
While it is important to respect all religions, Ziauddin demonstrates that it is also important to be able to look at all ways of thinking, including your own, and see where, even while you may be strict, it is important to change your way of thinking, especially if doing so brings about equality for everyone. Many laws in the Middle East are based on religion. The Hadith, a “record of the traditions or sayings of the prophet Muhammad, the original founder of the Islam religion and the proclaimer of the Qur’an”, sets the foundation for many of the present-day laws (4). As a result, many women in the Middle East have found themselves barred from holding the top governmental positions and entrapped in a misogynistic society (5). Ziauddin’s upbringing and personal reflection resulted in a nontraditional, egalitarian marriage, a marriage in which husband and wife treat each other equally despite the norms.
Malala Yosafzai was born in Mingora, the largest city of the Swat Valley region in Pakistan on July 12, 1997, to her father Ziauddin, and mother Toor Pekai Yousafzai. Two younger brothers later joined her. Malala lived a happy early life. “My father,” she writes on her website, Malala Fund, “was determined to give me every opportunity a boy would have,” these opportunities coming to Malala in the form of education (6). Ziauddin was in charge of a learning institution in the city, an institution that brought both Pakistani boys and girls together under one roof as equals--a rare sight in Pakistan--and an institution that was founded with little money. “The big capital and the big power that I had was my passion, my conviction, my connection to the community,” Ziauddin stated in 2018 (12). By 2012, 500 girls and 600 boys shared the school, including Malala (13).
Ziauddin told Malala stories of how when she was only a baby, she used to act like her dad and pretend she was teaching classes and giving lessons. “I loved school,” Malala stated, and with dreams of becoming a teacher, doctor, and politician, Malala was a very bright student who was already multilingual at a young age. However, the good did not last. “Everything changed when the Taliban took control of our town in Swat Valley,” Malala explained (6). Soon, the Taliban became a dominant force in Malala’s home. With suicide attacks abundant in many different parts of the country, the Taliban also succeeded in implementing new misogynistic policies and regulations. The girls in northwestern Pakistan found themselves banned from attending school as well as prohibited from harmless activities like dancing and watching TV. Schools across the country were bombed and burned down, a vast number of them being schools girls could attend (9).
Malala was forced to find another school, her last day at her original school being in January of 2008. “I said goodbye to my classmates,” she stated on her website, “not knowing when - if ever - I would see them again” (6). While Malala may have had trouble seeing and visiting her old classmates, one thing was for certain--they would definitely see and hear about what she was up to.
Imagine the life of this eleven-year-old girl in Pakistan. Her father was previously in charge of an educational institution, and now schools all across her country were being attacked--a majority of them being schools she was actually allowed into--by one of the most infamous and dangerous terrorist groups in the entire world. If she did anything to protest, she would find herself in the grip of death at any moment.
For most, this would be the time to give in. For Malala? It was the time to begin speaking out against the Taliban and the current educational environment to a national audience. She soon began writing for the BBC under the pseudonym Gul Makai.
“I had a terrible dream yesterday,” she wrote in one 2009 entry, “with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid of going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools” (7). Fearful, she continued, “On my way from school to home, I heard a man saying ‘I will kill you.’ I hastened my pace and after a while, I looked back [to see] if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief, he was talking on his mobile and must’ve been threatening someone else over the phone” (7).
This entry, while prophesying an event that would soon take place, was translated into English and read all around the world. In 2009, Malala found herself speaking on Capitol Talk, a Pakistani talk show hosted by journalist Hamid Mir, to tell her story and spread her message (10). Soon, girls were allowed to attend school as long as they wore burkas, which caused so much violence that Malala’s family was forced to seek refuge outside of Swat Valley. Malala was then featured in short films published by The New York Times and even met with U.S. military leaders about the situation (11).
It became rather obvious that Malala was Gul Makai as well due to her speaking and activism, a factor that led her to winning many awards. However, with Malala on the Taliban’s radar, the Taliban set out to kill her for her activism and messages of progress. “In October 2012, on my way home from school,” she recalled, “a masked gunman boarded my school bus and asked ‘Who is Malala?’” (6). She was only fifteen years old at the time and in the middle of a discussion with fellow classmates about schoolwork when the man shot her three times in the head (6).
Malala was transported to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar where she laid in a medically induced coma. The wounds were serious, and time was running out. Col. Junaid Khan saw that Malala’s brain was swelling very quickly, and the only way to keep her alive would be to remove a portion of her skull. “The part of the brain that was involved was concerned not only with speech, not only the speech centers but also those centers which are involved in controlling or giving power to the right arm and right leg,” Col. Khan stated in an interview, “so contemplating surgery in this very sensitive area can have risks in terms of… losing the speech or losing the power in the opposite part of the body, meaning the person can be paralyzed afterward” (14). In discussions with Malala’s father who showed distrust and discomfort towards Col. Khan as the doctor was very young, Col. Khan was forced to say rather bluntly yet earnestly, “There are risks. But if you foresee that this patient warrants an operation and if you don’t do an operation, she will lose her life, then you’re going to take all the chances” (14).
After the initial surgery, Malala was transported to a hospital in Birmingham, England, to get more medical help. Ten days had passed since she was shot, ten days of a medically induced coma. When she awoke, she was told how people all around the world had heard her story; support for Malala’s mission now grew worldwide as the story of a girl who spoke out against the Taliban and lived to tell the tale was definitely one of inspiration (14). On her 16th birthday, Malala spoke at the United Nations in New York about education and the situation in Pakistan, and eventually, she and her father founded the Malala Fund, an organization that focuses on increasing awareness of situations in which girls are barred from educational resources in communities across the globe (15). The Malala Fund also emphasizes inspiring girls to speak out against misogynistic environments and policies, investing in local educators and activists who have the mission of improving women’s rights in regards to education all over the world, and funding educational projects in six separate countries with the help of international leaders (6).
When Malala was just seventeen, she became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. “This award is not just for me” she stated in her acceptance speech, “it is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change” (16).
In February of 2020, the Malala Fund established a five-year strategic plan to help girls in Pakistan find their way towards school. There are three main areas of the plan:
Developing a global network of education advocates - establishing more people in the world to help girls in less fortunate countries find their way to school
Delivering tangible change in targeted geographies - developing partnerships with the governments of third world countries to create plans to allow better schooling
Amplifying girls’ voices and their advocacy efforts - spreading the message of the Malala Fund and giving girls assistance in speaking out just like Malala did (17).
It will be exciting to see how the Malala Fund’s five-year strategic plan works out, just as it has been exciting to see Malala graduate from one of America’s most prestigious schools. “[It’s] hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at Oxford.” she wrote in a June 2020 tweet. “I don’t know what’s ahead. For now, it will be Netflix, reading and sleep” (18).
Reflection
Malala’s story is inspiring, and she is only twenty-three years old at the time this essay is being published in 2021. With some minor behind-the-scenes readjusting involved in terms of timing, this essay about Malala came to be. In fact, the original plan for Women’s History Month didn’t even feature Malala’s story at all. It focused, as with many amateur writers in the world of politics, on only American game changers with a little bit of Greta Thunberg thrown in the mix so I could have a chance to talk about global warming (it’s funny how excited I get when talking about global warming even when it makes me question my lifelong aspiration to be a father--but more on that later.) It wasn’t until I had a deep conversation about impactful women with a good friend that I was recommended the story of Malala.
And I am so glad that I was.
I love my country, and I will always love it, even when I say things like “America is a third world country wearing a Gucci necklace and carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag” or “it sucks here, and I want to move to London, England”. I love it because it is my country, it will always be my home, and I have a chance to help fix it whether that be in big ways like writing actual policy or smaller ways like inspiring someone younger than I am to do so. Still, it is easy to get trapped by focusing only on where you live and how you can fix it; it’s a trap that keeps us from seeing the entire world. Looking at the entire world can make us realize just how good we have it.
While it would be impossible for me to start this essay off with something along the lines of “Have you ever been shot at school?” because, based on my own grim predictions, we will all more than likely know someone who is a victim in a school shooting unless some actual progress is made, this essay made me realize just how good I had it in my own school. While I may only keep in touch with about four people from my graduating class, and I have already decided to skip my high school reunion on account of me simply not caring1, most of my memories from school are great.
Many memories came out of that school, a school I spent thirteen years in, memories of spending time with friends, going to band competitions, acting in musicals and plays, and making lasting relationships with my teachers. While students like Malala may feel a little bit of this, the unparalleled hardships of schools in the Middle East and schools in the United States are hard to miss. Fighting for our country is just what we have to do if we want things to get better--and, when we have the resources, which we so often do--fighting for those living in other countries is important, too. Malala is an inspiration for those who fight not only for themselves but others as she was faced with so much adversity day in and day out. Regardless, she continued and still continues to fight to create opportunities, like those many of us reading have available to us, for girls and women everywhere.
Footnotes
My school has reunions after only five years… what the hell is that?
Sources & Links
What Being Malala’s Father Taught Me About Feminism | TIME Magazine
Women’s Rights In Pakistan
Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai: ‘I became a person who hates all injustice’ | The Guardian
Malala Yousafzai: 16th birthday speech at the United Nations | Malala Fund Newsroom
Malala Fund publishes its five-year strategic plan | Malala Fund Newsroom
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