On October 9, 2012 two Taliban gunmen boarded the school bus that Malala Yousafzai was on. After asking which of the students was Malala, they proceeded to fire three shots at her. One of the bullets hit the side of her forehead and traveled along the length of her face before going through her shoulder (Schifrin, 2013). Since the attack Malala Yousafzai has become a prominent international advocate for educational equality for men and women. This paper will look at her life and her impact on the world.
The reason for the Taliban attack on Malala was a blog that she had been writing underneath a nom de plume for Urdu BBC since she was 11 years old (Kellaway, 2015). In the blog she spoke of her existence during the Taliban regime. She also spoke about her thoughts on the absence of schooling for females in the Swat Valley. In 2010, Reporter Adam B. Ellick did a New York Times documentary (Gaynord, 2010) on her life in the wake of the Pakistani military invading the region. After Ellick’s interview. Malala’s status rose as she became a vocal figure in the fight for women’s education. After the attack Malala spend the next few days in a grave state before being sent to Birmingham, England in order to receive rehabilitation. The murder attempt on Malala’s life led to Gordon Brown, who was the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education to institute a UN request in Malala’s name. This petition called for all children to have access to education at the conclusion of 2015. The petition led the way for the sanctioning of Pakistan's first Right to Education Bill
Malala has been featured as part of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” on the 2013, 2014, and 1015 issues of Times. In 2013, she became the recipient of Sakharov Prize, along with the first ever Pakistani National Youth Peace Prize (Profile: Malala Yousafzai - BBC News. 2016). She also spoke in front of the United Nations appealing for education to be accessible to children all over the world. Later in 2014 at the age of 17, Malala became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient when she was co-recipient of the Prize alongside Kailash Satyarthi (The Nobel Peace Prize for 2014). Then in 2015, a documentary of her life titled He Named Me Malala was released.
Malala Yousafzai came into existence in the Swat District of the Khyber Paktunkhwa Province in Pakistan on July 12, 1997 (Gaynord, 2010) to a Sunni Muslim family. Her family consists of her parents Ziauddin and Tor Pekai, along with her brothers Khushal and Atal (Yousafzai, M., & Lamb, C. 2013). She was mostly taught via her father Ziauddin who owned and ran a private school organization identified as the Khushal Public School (Yousafzai & Lamb, 2013). Her father, an educational activist himself encouraged Malala’s interest in politics and education (Ellick, 2012). In 2008, The Swat Valley was being taken over by Taliban militants. The militants banned music, TV, women from shopping and education for girls (Peer, 2012) all of which Malala would write about in her blog.
She spoke that first time about the right to education in 2008 at a nearby press club in Peshawar. Her speech was covered on regional TV and in local newspapers (Westhead, 2009. Later in 2008, she began blogging about her life under the Taliban regime in Swat after her father Zaiuddin was approached by BBC Urdu’s Peshawar correspondent, Abdul Hai Kakar. Kakar inquired about finding a girl that would be willing to blog about her life in the region. None of the other families in the region would allow their daughters to participate due to the danger involved. Zaiuddin then proposed that Malala, who was 11, would be willing to write the blog. (Van Gilder Cooke, 2012).
Malala would pass hand written notes to a reporter. The reporter would then email them (Peer,2012). Her first blog post occurred on January 3, 2009 telling of her thoughts regarding the First Battle of Swat, along with the Taliban ruling that girls were forbidden from going to school after January 15, 2009. She wrote of waking up the evening prior to the edict going into effect and listening to the sounds of gunfire, and how the Taliban had already destroyed over a hundred girls’ schools (Peer, 2012). The boys’ schools decided to remain closed until February 9th in protest of the closing of the girls’ schools (Yousafzai, M. & Lamb, 2013). The Taliban finally permitted primary aged girls to return to school after the boys’ school reopened. On February 21, 2009 the Taliban front-runner Maulana Fazlulla publicized that he was removing the prohibition on women’s learning permitting the girls to take their exams in March as long as they wore burqas (Yousafzai, 2009). Malala would make her last blog post on March 12, 2009.
In May of 2009 the Pakistani Army came into the area to reclaim control from the Taliban in the Second Battle of Swat. Malala’s family was evacuated and divided after Mingora was evacuated as the Pakistani army moved throughout the regions reclaiming control from the Taliban. (Hesford, 2014). Malala went to stay with relatives in the country. It was during this time that she was filmed for the documentary by Ellick. Malala and her family were later reunited after the Pakistani’s were able to remove the Taliban from the area. After the documentary was released her blogging character was exposed and she started making national appearances advocating for educational equality for women (Yousafzai & Lamb, 2013). In 2011 Archbishop Desmond Tutu nominate Malala to receive the International Children’s Peace Prize (Hesford, 2014). She did not receive the prize. She did receive Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize in December 2011 which was given to her by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Per Malala’s request, Gillani had Pakistani leaders create a IT campus at the Swat Degree College for Women. (Khan, 2011). Malala started the process of creating the Malala Educational Foundation in 2012 with the purpose of helping poor girls to receive an education. (46). Her activism would result in a number of death threats being issued against her by the Taliban and after none of the threat dissuaded her from her goal. The Taliban decided that they would kill her and on October 9. 2012 they executed their murder attempt.
After she was shot there was a number of protests in Pakistan and the Right to Education Bill was passed after 2 million people signed a petition demanding the right to education. (Hesford, 2014). In October 2012 Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched the “I am Malala” petition which contains three demands (1) The Pakistani government to implement a plan that would guarantee that every child would receive an education (2) That discrimination against females would be banned in all countries, and (3) All children would be enrolled in educational programs by the end of 2015. (Hesford, 2014).
After completing rehabilitation Malala returned to activism. In July 2013, Malala spoke in front of the United Nations, she also met Queen Elizabeth. She would speak at Harvard in September 2013 and met President Obama and his family in Oct 2013. During her meeting with President Obama she challenged him on the United States use of drone strikes against Pakistanis. (Kellaway, 2015). Malala would win the World Children’s Prize in October 2014, she then donated $50,000 to assist in the rebuilding of schools in Gaza. (Meikle, 2014)
In conclusion, the ways that Malala has impacted the world are as follows: (1) In 2009 Malala blogged to tell the world what life was lie under Taliban control (2) She revealed her identity and began speaking out nationally against the lack of education for women. This would lead to an unsuccessful murder attempt being carried out against her by the Taliban (3) She spoke in front of the United Nations on the need for education for all (4) she wrote a book telling of her life in which she spreads her message about the need for education (5) Malala was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. She has also won a number of other awards in recognition of her advocacy for education (6) In 2015 Malala spoke on Capitol Hill addressing US Lawmakers regarding the need to invest in the education of all children worldwide (7) She developed the Malala Petition which has over 3 million signatures. The Petition is a call for unity in the fight to provide education by having the United Nations commit to the Millennium Development Goal 2 once again (8) the Malala fund was created so that her words can be put into actions (9) On her 18th birthday in 2015 Malala opened a girls’ school for 200 Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. The school which is paid for and maintained the Malala fund enables girls 24-18 to receive education and training. One of the biggest ways that Malala has impacted the world is that she has cause an international dialogue about the lack of education for millions of children around the world. She has motivated the United Nations to work on making sure that no child is prevented and education based on money, disability, gender, language, or ethnicity. She has sought to achieve her goal by peaceful means and even forgave the man who shot her saying the she did not hate the man who shot her and would not shoot him if she had a chance.
Works Cited
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