Disclaimer: This post was originally published in TechNews on March 29, 2014
IIT Office of Spiritual Life and Services Learning, hosted a book club for “I Am Malala” during The Women’s History month. In Malala's honor, they also launched their book drive to benefit Open Books, a Chicago-based award-winning nonprofit that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond.
Malala Yousafazi, 16, was shot by the Pakistani Taliban, 2012, for lapsing their restrictions in Swat valley on girls' education. She openly campaigned for the reconstruction and reopening of more than 400 schools destroyed and closed down by the Taliban.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until ousted by a U.S. military invasion ordered by President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But its roots are in the remote tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan, where Malala's family is from. Where it can, the Taliban has imposed rules forbidding girls from going to school, listening to music or taking most jobs.
“I Am Malala” is not only the autobiography of a dauntless girl who was shot by the coward Taliban but it also uncover the deep-rooted connections of Pakistani state with fundamentalist Islamists and our so-called social and cultural norms which unfortunately leads us to discrimination against women. The book tells us the story of any other normal Pashtun girl who is intensely agitated by increasing radicalization of the Pakistani society which consequently restrains women's freedoms and access to education. She explains how a young generation of Pakistanis is deeply disconnected from the rest of the world because their biased text books distort history and glorify wars in the name of Islam.
Malala offers her unusual sincere opinion and condemnation on several issues which are still considered as forbidden for public debate in Pakistan. The way she has discussed Pakistan’s internal policy failures and the army's acceptance, reinforcement and fortification for the Jihadist elements, she has really distressed the node between the military and the mullah (clergy) in Pakistan.
Unfortunately most Pakistanis have failed to support Malala in her this journey. Where we all should be proud of her, we are finding out ways to disown her. Why is that? That is just because of the way the conservative commentators has presented her image in front of us. Many people in Pakistan were unable to read the book because the Pakistani Taliban have warned bookshops not to sell copies of the book and just in case if they did then they will have to face the consequences. And I believe until and unless you don’t read this book you won’t know the joy of survival and the pain of being away from you own home. It just feels like a body without his soul.
She was also nominated for 2013 Nobel Peace prize, and if she would have won that, she could have been the youngest-ever Nobel Laureate at age 16. For me Malala is a real life super hero, who is ready to give up everything for the sake of education, not only for herself but for every individual in our country. Being a Pakistani girl and coming from a remote area of Pakistan just like Malala, she has a very especial place in my heart. Not for what she is doing but for how she is doing it. I can easily related myself with Malala because the relation she shares with her father is the same relation I share with my dad.
I personally believe that every human has a duty, a role and a certain function to perform for humanity, for his country and for his people and I always feel that I am lagging behind to play my due role. This I learnt from my father, who taught me the values of fellowship, humanity and hard work. Because of his teachings, I still believe that if we all play our parts in our own communities, towns, villages and cities, one day we will succeed to make this world a better place to live.
Despite the fact that, to be able to read and write is considered a sign of success and prestige in Pakistan but I was not satisfied as I always wished to do something which could have a beneficial and a positive impact on human lives and which could make me internally content.
Though, I belong to one of the remotest part of Pakistan (Baluchistan) but I am still blessed to avail the opportunity to get education. My father actually went against his whole family to educate his daughters, because to him education is the basic necessity. Dreams have no bounds, my parents taught me that, and, that’s what made me dream. I am not an intellectual, but, the famous quote by Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream…!” really changed my life.
Just like Malala I have a dream for my village and people that one day they will also get a chance to taste the sweet fruit of education. I have a dream that one day my country literacy rate will be 100 percent. But my question is that will my fellow being help me to pursue my dream? Will they stand next to me and support me or will I be criticize like Malala too?
I was asked during the book club session that after Malala’s sacrifice will the parents leave their children to fight for this cause. My answer was maybe not because they fear this thing that their daughters are not Malala and no one will come to rescue to them. And I am giving this statement on this behalf that last June 2013, there was a terrible bomb blast in Sardar Bahdur Khan Women University, Quetta and at least 25 people, including the deputy commissioner of Quetta, 14 students of a women’s university and four nurses were killed when a bomb tore through a bus, followed by a suicide attack and a gun-battle in the Bolan Medical College hospital, where the injured students were taken for treatment. The sad part is that the one who survived were not taken care like Malala, because they were not known by many. They were not fighting for the cause of education nor were they writing about their struggle to get educated, they were just any other person who got injured in a blast. But it’s not that that I don’t respect Malala for whatever she is doing for us. I still hope and wish that one day we all will stand united for one cause and that would be education. I will continue my struggle just like Malala because as she said “I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.”
Link to original post: 'I Am Malala’ proves inspiring, relatable, terrific
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