When Swat was overrun by regressive marauders, Malala’s voice resonated through the hills and streams of the scenic valley, reflecting the inveterate resolve of a whole nation: “When I knew that they were burning our schools, I thought they were burning education, they were burning books. I have to be educated. I’ll be educated no matter what the odds.” No, I am not afraid, I am not afraid.”
Fear resides in the domain of the coward. Indeed, these perpetrators of violence are intent on destroying the avenues for our nation to escape the tentacles of captivity that have been their poor bounty for generations. Every evil coterie of slave traders is replaced by another that is even more evil and cruel. Such is the system that we have inherited and such are the devilish machinations that are so abundantly available to the practitioners of evil. Where are the champions of justice and the custodians of human rights? Where are the voices that stand for the supremacy of law? What of the promoters of a dialogue with these evil bands who could not tolerate little Malala’s drive for education?
The blood that stained Malals’s school-going clothes is the blood that stains the fate of this nation. To escape its consequences, everyone will have to show the resolve Malala showed when she took on the forces of repression, obscurantism, violence and depravity. They can no longer hide behind the veil of just extending vocal support. They need to play a role commensurate with the calling of the times — a role that will have to go beyond meaningless semantics. We have had enough of this evil duplicity. It has outlived its relevance and utility and will not work any longer.
Yesterday, it was Rimsha — a teenaged victim of Down Syndrome — who was wrongly accused of blasphemy because she is Christian. Today, it is Malala who championed against the forces of evil and darkness. There are also the 13 girls who have been reportedly sacrificed at the altar of the evil custom of Vani. There are innumerable Rimshas and Malalas whose voices are silenced without anyone ever knowing about them. How long are we going to allow this gory drama to play on, which is conceived and enacted by the very people who raise their voices against it in public, but behind closed doors, encourage these practices because it strengthens their criminal mafias? Their faces need to be unmasked and put before the court of the people they have wronged for generations.
Malala is alive as, indeed, she will always be. She has come to represent the will of a nation fighting to break the chains of slavery. She is leading the charge to move away decisively from decadent forces that represent the continued enslavement of thought and emotion. If Pakistan is to divorce from its sickening past and the repressive forces it has nurtured, it needs Malala Yousufzai and her resolute voice piercing the darkness that engulfs us.
Is it the scent of blood or the caress of the beloved’s lips?/ Behold, whence cometh the morning breeze/ Is spring in the air or the prison overflows again? Listen, whither cometh the sound of music — Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2012.
COMMENTS (8)
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It is a terrible tragedy that a country of 180 million being torn apart by its own contradictions could produce just one Malala, when there should have been a million by now. That a 14 year old girl can muster courage when the men folk strut about mouthing pious homilies and pontificating, is neither funny nor acceptable. Sad that just one creation from Heaven is visible in the Land of the Pure.
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All for Rimsha - none for the Christians and other minorities. But it may be the beginning of something good. . As a human being, I have to celebrate that.
Shaheed BB look in to eyes of these coward and was assassinated by them, Malala stood against them and got shot, when so called MEN will stand and defeat the menace?
Nice rhetoric and a good Op Ed. However, I see one major problem with this kind of rhetoric. The presence of TTP, fanaticism and terrorism is presented as if it is not our own fault but some external force descended from the sky. These are all our own doings and we are the root cause of this menace in the country. We have nurtured these militant rightwing fanatic extremist forces for more than three decades and it has come to bite us. It is not a question of just one girl but all women in Pakistan and TTP and its supporters would not stop at anything short of total Talibanization of Pakistan. There may still be time to do the right thing before we all are under their control.
Malala is a miracle for Pakistan, People of Pakistan are united against extremism. I could not believe that a14 year old girl will change the tide of extremism. Bad news for Imran Khan and his supporters and good news for the looters. No one wants extremism, we will tolerate looters. Yeah Allah save us from Imran Khan and his TTP supporters.
Hasan Sir:
I am not only unrelated to Malala, I am also one of the folks who isn't exactly a wellwisher of Pakistan. Being an Indian, I hope Pakistan becomes stable in my own self interest, but for all the problems Pakistan causes for India, I rarely sympathized with Pakistan when it got in to any trouble related to trouble.
Not so with Malala. Ever since she was shot, all that's been on my (and my family's mind) is the well being of this little child. Part of the reason might be my own small kids about her age, but more importantly, from her interviews & you tube videos it is clear she is an exceptionally gifted child - someone who is clearly on the way to be a major international figure, and perhaps a thought leader. People like her don't happen by accident - they are both freak of nature and nurture.
So, we fervently hope she gets well, gets back to how she used to be before and also becomes the focal point around which Pakistan rallies and transforms - and also becomes a normal developing country with normal problems - Corruption, Poverty etc.