One didn’t hear much about the Taliban before the infamous events of September 11th, 2001, even if one was relatively informed and kept up with the news. Here and there, they made the news as they continued to make living in Afghanistan less and less desirable, but they weren’t an every-day item. In my mind, they were most famous for blowing up the Buddhas of Bamyan. With al-Qaeda’s attacks, though, things changed and changed quickly. Afghanistan became a military target for the U.S., putting the Taliban in the crosshairs. With the interconnectedness and fluidity of the region, it was easy for many Taliban members to cross borders and blend into society elsewhere, including Pakistan, where they had already had a small presence since the mid 1990s. After September 11th and as the Taliban went international, they were in the news every day, and when Taliban gunmen shot a girl named Malala in Pakistan, both the Islamist Taliban and the girl became household names around the world.
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (ISBN: 978-0-297-87092-0) is the story of the schoolgirl from the time she was a little girl to the beginning of her recovery in England. The book starts with her young childhood and takes the reader through day she was shot in great detail. Interwoven into her discussion of cricket with friends, friendly competition among classmates, and trips to ancestral villages to visit extended family are brief lessons on Pakistani history and geography, which adequately set the stage for Malala’s life and what would become important to her as she got older. Far away from the bigger cities where more liberal attitudes existed, life in the villages of Swat went on much like it had for centuries, following traditional Islamic custom. Malala’s father was a trend-setter in many ways and surrounded himself with others who wanted to see progress in the field of education. He believed everyone should have an education. He also didn’t have a lot of use for many of the traditions that prevented women from freely moving about, going to school, or otherwise expressing themselves. His oldest daughter followed in his footsteps and was nationally prominent by the time she was of junior high age, having won a few national awards, having met with various Pakistani dignitaries on the way. She enjoyed school, enjoyed learning, and wished everyone had the same opportunity. She saw how the lack of such opportunities negatively affected others in her community, including her own mother, who was illiterate. She and two others were shot by Taliban gunmen in 2012, and because she needed long-term intensive care and was under continued threat, she and her family were evacuated to the UK, where they have lived ever since.
I was unsure how I would react to this book. It was wildly popular a few years ago, but I was reluctant to read it, thinking it would push either Islam or women’s rights in an overbearing fashion. It did neither and was refreshing in its agenda-free message. I didn’t know that the Taliban shooting was not indiscriminate. She was a very specific target thanks to her involvement in Pakistan in trying to get women and girls more involved in education. (If nothing else, it rubbed off on her mom, who had begun reading lessons near the end of the book.) While I got the impression that Malala was and is a devout Muslim, she seemed to have a “big-tent“ mentality, simply explaining and never criticizing (other than Taliban policy and actions). Women in burqas and bazaar dancers were equal in her eyes. In a world where many in the West are looking for the moderate Muslim voice, this may be one of them. Her same level-headedness came through in her discussion of women and girls and schooling. She saw the advantages that it afforded and wanted all to be able to participate. Neither poverty nor tradition should stand in the way of those who wanted to go to school. Such a concept seems so basic to Westerners and one that fits well into the idea of equal opportunity, but stories like this show that there is much to yet to be done in spreading these basic norms around the world (and not forgetting them at home at the same time).
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (ISBN: 978-0-297-87092-0) is the story of the schoolgirl from the time she was a little girl to the beginning of her recovery in England. The book starts with her young childhood and takes the reader through day she was shot in great detail. Interwoven into her discussion of cricket with friends, friendly competition among classmates, and trips to ancestral villages to visit extended family are brief lessons on Pakistani history and geography, which adequately set the stage for Malala’s life and what would become important to her as she got older. Far away from the bigger cities where more liberal attitudes existed, life in the villages of Swat went on much like it had for centuries, following traditional Islamic custom. Malala’s father was a trend-setter in many ways and surrounded himself with others who wanted to see progress in the field of education. He believed everyone should have an education. He also didn’t have a lot of use for many of the traditions that prevented women from freely moving about, going to school, or otherwise expressing themselves. His oldest daughter followed in his footsteps and was nationally prominent by the time she was of junior high age, having won a few national awards, having met with various Pakistani dignitaries on the way. She enjoyed school, enjoyed learning, and wished everyone had the same opportunity. She saw how the lack of such opportunities negatively affected others in her community, including her own mother, who was illiterate. She and two others were shot by Taliban gunmen in 2012, and because she needed long-term intensive care and was under continued threat, she and her family were evacuated to the UK, where they have lived ever since.I was unsure how I would react to this book. It was wildly popular a few years ago, but I was reluctant to read it, thinking it would push either Islam or women’s rights in an overbearing fashion. It did neither and was refreshing in its agenda-free message. I didn’t know that the Taliban shooting was not indiscriminate. She was a very specific target thanks to her involvement in Pakistan in trying to get women and girls more involved in education. (If nothing else, it rubbed off on her mom, who had begun reading lessons near the end of the book.) While I got the impression that Malala was and is a devout Muslim, she seemed to have a “big-tent“ mentality, simply explaining and never criticizing (other than Taliban policy and actions). Women in burqas and bazaar dancers were equal in her eyes. In a world where many in the West are looking for the moderate Muslim voice, this may be one of them. Her same level-headedness came through in her discussion of women and girls and schooling. She saw the advantages that it afforded and wanted all to be able to participate. Neither poverty nor tradition should stand in the way of those who wanted to go to school. Such a concept seems so basic to Westerners and one that fits well into the idea of equal opportunity, but stories like this show that there is much to yet to be done in spreading these basic norms around the world (and not forgetting them at home at the same time).
 | This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 License and is copyrighted © MMXIV John Pruess. |
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