Malala and Picasso

In the early 1990s, my car was stopped by a corrupt group of policemen. I was pulled out of the car and ordered to make a monetary contribution to their breakfast fund. Not carrying any money, I told them so, showing them an empty wallet. Eyes bloodshot, stinking of cannabis, an officer unstrapped a semi-automatic gun and rammed it into my mouth. The hard metal muzzle chipped a tooth. He screamed, asking me to kneel and reconsider my lack of generosity.

The negative space between the white enamel of a chipped tooth is my daily reminder of that incident. After staring hard enough, the abstract profile of the chipped tooth edge takes shape — different things, at different times, but I usually see a gun muzzle. The emotion, however, is always the same: a visceral hatred for abusive authority figures. In painting, negative space is the space existing between and around the subject image. Negative space is clearly visible when the space around the subject forms an artistically relevant shape. This refers to our cognitive ability to separate the compositional elements within a painting based on contrast, separating those elements that are dark from those which are light. What one sees in this negative space fully depends on the viewer and not necessarily on the item itself.

There is a lot of negative space that exists in Pakistan. Malala Yousufzai blogged of a country where education would prevail. That thought was deemed threatening enough to make her a Taliban target. The fact that Malala was shot in the head for it is tragic but is now a foregone conclusion. As a nation, Pakistan is a rotating carousel of tragedy. Malala’s story is only the latest, with countless others before her. Now, the only fact remaining is how Pakistan should deal with the Taliban. Malala’s desire to go to school brought hope to thousands of marginalised girls living in parts of Pakistan where the Taliban are openly supported. Unanimously educating girls with the full backing of the state would send the Taliban and their sympathisers a clear message, shining a light on prejudices and cavernous educational deficiencies.

Picasso’s painting, “Guernica”, is considered a masterpiece in its use of negative space. The painting uses the colour black, misshapen figures and a sense of turmoil to effectively portray the tragedy of war. The negative spaces in the painting focus the viewer on the tormented figures, making the scene ever more violent and horrifying.

The fact that the Taliban would shoot a 15-year-old in the head is horrifying. The bullet entered Malala’s head, tunnelling past her jaw and embedded itself above her shoulder blade. She is recuperating in the United Kingdom, where she was flown to for specialised treatment. It remains to be seen whether she returns to Pakistan. Regardless, Malala’s heroism emphasises that education has the ability to shape societies for the better. Desmond Tutu nominated the young girl for the International Children’s Peace Prize. The Taliban targeted her because they felt she was an outspoken opponent, promoting “Western thinking” and female education. Her blogs describe a world of “terrified classmates, who were forced to hide books under shawls, living in fear of having acid thrown in their faces”.

Picasso once said, “Everything you can imagine is real.” Let us hope then all that Malala imagined, unequivocally, for a country where education and rights for all girls and women prevail, becomes real.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2012.