Malala had been an open activist, especially for the role of female education in Pakistan. She lived in the Swat valley and lived in daily fear with her father-knowing that the Taliban were always within close reach in their battle to overtake the region with their cruel laws.
Within the last few years, before the attack on her. Malala’s open commitment to protecting the rights of women in Pakistan and their rights to education encouraged national and international media to infiltrate her region and get to know her and her father who was supportive of his daughter’s stem warning that she would “never stop”.
First things first Malala was not shot because she supported education, at least not according to the Taliban. They had sent official warnings to her family saying that their lives were in danger if they were to continue their glorification of their Western Enemies and their culture.
The Taliban hated Malala because they considered her the epitome of a “modern movement” in the backwaters of Pakistan, a place where people are used to standing down and being overrun by militants who silence the majority of its dwellers.
They hated that she gave the world an insight into a day in the life of a Pakistani girl and the fear instigated by the Taliban. They hated that she accepted fragments of the west whilst retaining what was acceptable of her own culture. A mixture of both Eastern and Western thinking is “corrupt” in the eyes of the Taliban. Who after the third warning decided to act upon their threats by sending men to the school bus she was traveling in, summoning her by name until her friends pointed her out before she could speak she was shot.
There is no strong evidence to suggest that the Taliban shot her strictly for supporting the education of any sort, though that may be one of many reasons, it is surely not the sole purpose that the Media portrayed.
One of the most impressive things to was that once Malala was shot, the outcry from the general Pakistani population was huge, regardless of their creed or location- they stood up for this young girl, praying for her recovery, cursing her attempted assassins and with fists in their air promising to never let her legacy die, whether she lived or died.
Day after day, the Pakistani people gathered in many sized crowds- both men and women to support Malala, and worldwide the outcry was huge, so much so that it’d make the Taliban scurry back to their caves from fear.
Even more promising was the fact that a Fatwa was issued against the Taliban by over 50 Muslim clerics within the region to condemn the Taliban and their actions.
Ulemas declared the attempt on her life, made by Pakistani Taliban gunmen while the 14-year-old girl was on her way home from school in the Swat valley, to be “un-Islamic”.
The joint fatwa, or religious edict, was issued by at least 50 scholars associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and appealed to worshippers to observe a “day of condemnation” on the same Friday. “Islam holds the Killing of one innocent person as killing the entirety of humanity,” said Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a former religious affairs minister in Pakistan.
In light of all this, some people and governments allowed this event and the suffering of the Pakistanis under the rule of the Taliban to support the use of drone attacks in the region, which was/is an ugly guise at allowing further innocents to die.
There is no justification for drone attacks, such attacks that do not differentiate between innocent civilians and militants, whilst the sad fact remains that the media always somehow claims that drones “kill militants” whilst they are absolutely silent about the innocent lives that are taken in the interim.
A new study from Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute finds that the number of Pakistani civilians killed in drone strikes is “significantly and consistently underestimated” by tracking organizations that are trying to take the place of government estimates on casualties.
In fact, the latest studies note that the ratio of civilians killed to militants in these drone attacks is 50:1.
Hence when people cheer for nations to nuke Pakistan with further drone strikes- essentially they support the death of civilians, men, women, and children- who knows how many other Malalas have had to die in such a way?
Another ugly side that emerged from the case of Malala was the thriving racism in the United Kingdom by the EDL (English Defence League). A “Party” that ensures it must keep and fight for Britain’s identity- an identity that is being stolen and taken over by immigrants and Muslims who want to impose “Shariah Law”.
These people have been well known to cause havoc, violent protests, and grotesque threats- nothing short but a menace to a society they claim to “protect”. When members of the EDL heard that Malala was 14 at the time and had just been shot in the head.
In defiance of the Taliban was going to get medical treatment in the UK, they went absolutely ape about it and vocalized an intense hatred for this young girl, calling her the most hideous names including a “Piece of shit”.
Concluding that she and her family were “using their resources” and that they were spending their taxpayer’s money on helping a “freeloader”.
Funnily enough, the Pakistani government was paying for her visit, treatment, and recovery entirely. Hence these “extremists” attacked a girl who openly fought the “extremists”.
Now comes the other side of the spectrum, some Muslims tried to claim that Malala was simply a cover-up and that she was not shot, or that she worked for American Propaganda agents and that the Taliban did not attack children and would not do such a thing.
Let us get one thing straight if one denies that what happened to Malala was true; that she was in fact not shot by the Taliban then we are calling her entire narrative falsehood.
We are basically implying that this young girl took a bullet to the head for no reason. her testimonies were false, and the struggle of her people and their society under the grips of the Taliban was not true- technically we are calling Malala a liar.
This is ridiculous: children are honest and Malala was honest in what she and her people must face, that these Taliban are militiamen who enforce rules upon people and who have openly threatened Malala and her family, and continued to do so even when she was on her deathbed.
The fact is by standing up for the Taliban, we are spitting on the face of the reality that Malala and her people face on a daily basis, we are calling her life story a lie and that all that she fought for and will Inshallah continue to fight for is nothing but mere fabrication-pathetic, to say the least.
Finally, there are the people that suddenly have the urge to insult Islam as a faith and somehow hold the Taliban to a pedestal to Islamic teachings: one thing that is absolutely ironic about such criticism is that Malala herself is a Muslim.
So these people must know that Malala is also a Muslim. When Malala was asked in an interview in 2011 how she would combat the Taliban she said she would speak to them first and ask them what they desire and demand, then she said she’d show them the Qur’an and prove to them nowhere it mentions women cannot get educated.
She believes, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world”. Her commitment and sacrifice have rightly been recognized and appreciated by the world at large; she has earned a lot of laurels and awards inter alia the world’s biggest award the Nobel Peace Prize.
In the CSS examination, the case study of Malala Yousaf Zai is often asked in the paper so you must understand the case study of Malala Yousaf Zai.
Relevant to this Post
