“People of Swat are peaceful and loving and I wanted to prove this to the world that they are neither terrorist, nor do they support terrorist mind-set”
A 14 year old Pakistani child rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, said these words while emotionally overwhelmed in an interview a few months ago. She began her struggle against the closure of girls’ schools and a ban on the girls’ education in the Sawat valley of Pakistan in 2009 when extremist Taliban took control of the region and imposed their vicious ideologies. Malala’s school was also closed down, but unlike others, she chose not to remain silent and instead raised her voice against this oppression on many forums, including BBC Urdu.
Today, she is fighting for her life in a hospital in Pakistan after having been shot by the extremists for committing the grave sin of challenging their barbarism. A banned extremist group of Taliban has very proudly claimed responsibility for this attack, while saying that they have set an example for others not to oppose them.
Pakistan is a country of more than 180 million people, which seems to have been hijacked by a handful of extremists. They have a history of suppressing the moderate and just voices and they seem to be successful in creating a fear of publically opposing them amongst society at large. Thousands of civilians and personnel from the armed forces have been killed and the moderate Islamic scholars have either been murdered or forced to leave the country. Their devilish mind-set did not spare the shrines of Sufi saints and they attacked these sacred places across Pakistan. Threatening English medium schools, journalists and human rights activists is a routine matter. More or less, the entire Pakistani nation is the victim of their terrorist attacks and living under constant fear of them.
The Taliban’s recent violent attack on 14 years old Malala, who’s only demand was not to close down her school and to allow her and fellow girls to complete their education, has generated a huge momentum of hatred and rejection against them by the entire Pakistani nation and the international community. If their rhetoric is to implement an Islamic system then they are forgetting the fact that education holds a central importance in Islam without any gender discrimination.
“Seeking knowledge is a duty of every Muslim, man or woman”. (Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 218)
If a daughter is born to a person and he brings her up, gives her a good education and trains her in the arts of life, I shall myself stand between him and hell-fire." (Kanz al-Ummal, reported by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud)
In her last email to an American journalist, Adam B.Ellick, Malala wrote these words in the capital letters to reiterate her passion for education:
“I WANT AN ACCESS TO THE WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE.”
Malala Yousafzai is a proud daughter of Pakistan who represents the Pakistani nation, a nation that wants to stand up against this ruthless practice of imposing moralities and pseudo-religious ideologies upon it by the extremists. But this nation is silent in order to avoid what Malala is facing today, and for the people not to end up having bullets in their revolutionary brains.
Lastly, I pray for you Malala, like millions of others around the world are doing that you recover soon, since you are the voice of my silent and terrified nation.
Rehman Anwer
