Malala Yousafzai raises a trophy she was given by Yemeni Civil Rights activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman after being honored with the International Children’s Peace Prize, in September, 2013

By Haadia from Lahore

Tuesday 9^th of October 2012, an ordinary day, at least for me. But the life of a girl from Swat was dangling in the midway of life and death. On Tuesday, 9th of October 2012. The autumn chill was as welcoming as ever for the Lahori’s. But for the Yousafzai family, the world had turned into a small black hole, where the internal reflection of misery and sorrow was overshadowing the sanity of mind.

On this fateful day, this girl almost paid the ultimate price for raising her voice against the ‘Talibanisation’. Shot in the head at point blank range while riding the bus home from school, she was not expected to survive. This girl is Malala. This girl is Malala Yousafzai.

This news popped in front of me as I was strolling down the BBC newsfeed on my tablet. That name was vaguely familiar. Malala. I pondered over it until it hit me. She was the teenage education activist from Swat, who was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize, and had written a diary on her life in Swat for the BBC blog. I was compounded in a state of shock as the magnitude of this event dawned on me. A heartfelt wave of sorrow escaped me. What a loss would it be for the country and her family, if the angel of death was to come asking for this teenage soul. It would be an irreplaceable causality. – An irredeemable sacrifice.

But the deep distress I was in clashed with the simmering waves of propaganda all around me. I was accustomed to hear people criticizing her and saying that what is so special about this teenager that she is hailed above all other girl education activists. People even accused her of speaking out of a ‘teen lust of fame’.

While Malala has become a hero to many for opposing the Taliban and standing up for girls’ education, conspiracy theories have flourished in Pakistan that her shooting was staged to create an icon for the west to embrace. “Several people die every day in Pakistan. Why is the shooting of this ordinary girl garnering so much national and international attention?’ were the kind of things my ear fell prey to when I turned on the news. Also just a few months after her shooting, as reported in the Huffington Post, Islamic radicalists in Britain prepared a fatwa on Malala, declaring her an apostate, charging her with idealising Obama, not wearing hijab and declaring herself pro secular. The statement issued against her says “it is no surprise what happened to her in Pakistan”

I was stuck in a dilemma, stuck between two infinities, both sides tugging on me with all their might. But in light of all these brewing controversies, I let this conundrum escape me as curtains of indifference were drawn around my mind.

These curtains were drawn open once again exactly a year subsequent to the dilemma I had left untouched, unanswered. Malala’s memoir titled ‘I am Malala’ got banned in schools all around Pakistan was the new headline. “More propaganda” was my exact thoughts. But this time buying the already brewed soup of the media was a flat NO for me. I myself wanted to garner whether the allegations against her and her biography were heedless or not, whether she really was an icon for the West to embrace or was she just a normal Pakistani teenager, struggling for her rights in this forlorn world. And hence rather than buying the story media loves selling, I penned my own, grabbing my very own copy of “I am Malala” from a nearby bookstore.

Media is telling us that this book has been mainly banned because it speaks favourably of the author Salman Rushdie who angered many Muslims with his book ‘The Satanic Verses’, and Ahmadis, members of a minority sect who have been declared Non Muslims under Pakistani law.

In her reference to Rushdie in her book, Malala says that her father sees ‘The Satanic Verses’ as ‘offensive to Islam but believes strongly in the freedom of speech. ‘First, let’s read the book and then why not respond with our own book?’ the book quotes her father as saying.

I believe that freedom should not be without bounds. When someone is writing a book which is highly offensive to one particular religion then he is transgressing the limits of freedom of speech. At the same time the reaction of Muslim world was also inappropriate when rioting started, destroying our own countries’ assets. Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, went as far as to issue a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s assassination. Does Islam teach us to handle the situation like the way we did? I totally doubt that as perfect examples can be garnered from the life of our Holy Prophet PBUH who remained patient and steadfast despite all the physical tortures and humiliating abuses inflicted and hurled on him.

Malala mentions in the book that Pakistan’s population of 180 million people includes more than 2 million Ahmadis, “who say they are Muslim though our government says they are not”.”Sadly those minority communities are often attacked,” the book says, referring also to Pakistan’s 2 million Christians. And the various attacks on minority groups prove the little tolerance our nation has of different religious societies. How their beliefs and practises are not respected and how these people are mercilessly killed throughout the streets of Pakistan without any check on the killers who supposedly are killing them in the light of our humble religion even though our Prophet Muhammad PBUH is quoted to have said “Who hurts a non-Muslim minority is like hurting me”. It is time to comprehend the tolerant teaching of the Prophet in order to better understand one another in this global community of humanity. Prophet Muhammad’s PBUH life is about tolerance, patience, respect and mercy for the entire humanity.

It is further said that the book did not show enough respect for Islam because it mentioned the Prophet Muhammad’s name without using the abbreviation PBUH – “peace be upon him” – as is compulsory in the Muslim world.  This omission in her book is very controversial and personally saddening as the Holy Quran says “Allah and his angels send blessings on the prophet. Oh you who believe, you too should invoke blessings on him and salute him with the salutation of peace” (33:56). Furthermore as some of her readers would be the dwellers of West, she should have added PBUH so as to strengthen the Prophet’s esteemed and honourable rank in Islam.

Not only after reading the memoir did I garner that the controversies surrounding it were a complete sham, I also solved the enigma that delved my mind before. That was she really deserving of the place where she now stands. I despite being her counterpart, deem it necessary to say YES she deserved above any other. Whyis the mandatory question? Well here it goes

After reading her memoir I realized that speaking out for ones rights in a place like Swat which is laced with terrorism, where fear is instilled in the marrows of people, where girls are forbidden to study, where people are flogged in front of your eyes, where death comes without warning and where old friends cannot be trusted is nothing but a fearless feat.  A ray of hope for these people was one girl, one teenage girl who rose up amidst all the looming threats and dangers, embracing whatever bad could happen to her and speaking out not only for herself but for all those other people who ever was effected by the Taliban and being a voice for all those girls who wanted to gain knowledge. She was shot that very day when she started writing a blog about her life in Swat because she was fearless as she knew that Taliban would not hesitate to harm her. She availed whatever platform provided to advocate her message, to dispatch her staunch beliefs on peace. Such a brave endeavour by a teenage girl in a place where grown men fear to raise hallowed cries is nothing but a great and commendable struggle. That is the very reason that her voice spread like a crescendo, enlightening the world of the power of a teenage girl, so poised, so bold in her manner that the Taliban’s gun shot couldn’t silence her. For one thing it made her purport her ideas with more zeal and fervour. Her miraculous journey has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Rather than blindly running around whatever the media and people are trying to propagate, rather than believing in the ever famous controversies, rather than portraying a girl who’s fighting for her rights as one who staged her own shooting, we should go an extra mile and try to find out the truth. We need to grow more as individuals, eradicating the judgmental mind set of ours, transforming it into a more tolerant one. We need to remove the veil of indifference in order to stand erect in front of our claims of infinite patriotism. We not only as Pakistani but as a Muslim should be proud of her; proud of whatever endeavours she has crossed in the one and a half decade she has embraced this earth. Proud of how the power of a young Pakistani girl is helping to inspire change in this world

“I don’t want support for myself; I want support to be for my cause of peace and education” are Malala’s words.