I have done a few ‘Hero of the Day’ posts and I have a few more on the way. The recipients have done great work spreading important information, rallying against injustice, educating us masses, and have been generally awesome. But today’s hero is special. On top of those usual achievements, she’s done it all while personally facing off against one of the leading threats to civilization as we know it. Oh, and she’s only 15.
The Taliban, with its “all powerful god”, is threatened by literate females. So much so, it will use brutal violence, murder, torture, and arson to enforce its view that girls should not be allowed in schools. What else would you expect from the “religion of peace”?
Malala Yousafzai, from the Swat district of Pakistan, however, does not agree. With aspirations of becoming a doctor or a politician, Malala is a strong advocate for gender equality, especially for equal access to education. Like many other girls in Swat, Malala has risked her life to attend classes against the wishes of the Taliban. At the same time, she was also doing something extraordinary. Malala, using a pseudonym, started blogging for the BBC, reporting to the world what it was like to be an ordinary child under the Taliban as it destroyed schools and forbade girls from attending the ones they hadn’t destroyed yet.
Adam B. Ellick from the New York Times made a documentary called Class Dismissed profiling Malala, her activism, and the difficulties and dangers for girls wanting to go to school.
Since the documentary, Malala’s has kept on advocating for girl’s education, growing in influence and visibility. This earned her and her father numerous death threats from the Taliban. Undeterred, Malala kept working for equal education opportunities.
On October 9th, 2012, the Taliban tried to make good on its threats. To preserve the glory of Islam an Allah, Malala was shot in the head.
Now recovering in a UK hospital, Malala isn’t done yet. Her message and story are spreading and the world is taking note.
Tarek Fatah, from Toronto, started a petition on change.org to nominate Malala for a Nobel Peace Prize. The response has been tremendous. The Prime Minister and the leaders of all of our major parties have unanimously endorsed this petition. If you haven’t done so already, please sign as well.
In the west we’ve had huge media organizations cower and retreat when islamist extremists raised their hate filled voices. In Swat, a 15 year old girl stood directly against the guns, bombs, soldiers, and machetes wielded by the worst of brutal zealots, just outside her door.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
4 comments
December 2, 2012 at 10:41 am
syrbal
You know, the fact that a “mere” girl would DARE stand up to them IS what scares them into knotted shorts mode.
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December 2, 2012 at 11:25 am
Alan Scott
There are all kinds of heroes like Malala Yousafzai who put their lives on the line against extremism. Glad to see you recognize one anyway .
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December 2, 2012 at 11:31 am
The Arbourist
@syrbal
Funny (not) that it takes a young person standing up for what and facing the consequences of what she believes in. Over here in mostly safe North America we do not, for the most part(rampant generalization noted), face threats on our lives for speaking our mind, at least on the level of being shot down in the street immediately. Our societal dialogue should be amazingly multifaceted and engaging. Is it though? Is it really?
Why should it be true that leading a enriched life is easier without a television than with one? This is tangential to Mystro’s post but speaks to our cowardice as a society, and the mass media that is largely responsible for our cultural product, shaped almost entirely by conservative market forces. I always imagine what TV could be and despair because instead we get the festering pile of bland banal crap we have today.
Rant over about media. Begin rant about religion.
The fuckers who did this exist in every society. They are the deluded anti-modern elements that want to drag civilization back to the “good ole days”. For religious extremists pining for the the good ole days is to wish for a cheaply gilded epoch where they can freely wank themselves raw to the mythological sky-daddy of choice. What the religious fail to mention is that golden-ages of religious-wank are a big juicy shit sandwich for the majority or people(especially women). One cannot have the former without the later.
It shouldn’t have to take a young woman getting shot for us to see how venal religion is and the ill effects that come from believing in bullshite.
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December 2, 2012 at 12:02 pm
syrbal
I think the issue with television is not the banality, per se. The problem is that people use such silly assed electronic diversions to escape the need for courage. If America in the main (yes, rampant and possibly hasty generalization noted here, too) ever had an existential crisis that was NOT derailed by “Ooooh, shiny toy!” something new would happen.
I use television myself as a diversion, but not from public events….from private ones; to have voices in the room on lonely dark evenings and such. But yes, our societal dialogue IS stunted and shallow….nothing but pre-run sound bites and pious pronouncements are allowed.
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