Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Interview
Anna Maria Tremonti’s Canadian exclusive interview with the Pakistani student who was shot by the Taliban.
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school pupil and spokesperson for women’s right to education. In retaliation for her high profile campaign for education and criticism of the Taliban, she was shot in the head at close range by a Taliban gunman. She survived the gunshot wound and has become a leading spokesperson for human rights, education and women’s rights. She has received numerous peace awards, and was the youngest person to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
Early Life Malala
Malala was born (12 July 1997) in Mingora, the Swat District of north west Pakistan to a Sunni Muslim family. She was named Malala, which means ‘grief stricken’ after a famous female Pashun poet and warrior from Afghanistan.
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai is a poet, and runs a chain of public schools. He is a leading educational advocate himself. In 2009, she began writing an anonymous blog for the BBC expressing her views on education and life under the threat of the Taliban taking over her valley. It was her father who suggested his own daughter to the BBC. She wrote under the byline “Gul Makai”
During this period, the Taliban’s military hold on the area intensified. At times, Malala reported hearing artillery from the advancing Taliban forces. As the Taliban took control of the area they issued edicts banning television, banning music, and banning women from going shopping and limiting women’s education. Many girls schools were blown up and as a consequence pupils stayed at home, scared of possible reprisals from the Taliban. However, for a time, there was a brief respite when the Taliban stated girls could receive primary education, if they wore Burkhas. But, a climate of fear prevailed and Malala and her father began to receive death threats for their outspoken views. As a consequence, Malala and her father began to fear for their safety. Her father once considered moving Malala outside of Swat to a boarding school, but Malala didn’t want to move.
” I don’t know why, but hearing I was being targeted did not worry me. It seemed to me that everybody knows they will die one day.” I am Malala p.188
When her father suggested they stop their campaigns for human rights, Malala replied
“How can we do that? You were the one who said that if we believe in something greater than our lives, then our voices will only multiply ever if we are dead. We can’t disown our campaign!’ I am Malala p.188
People were asking me to speak at events. How could I refuse saying there was a security problem? We couldn’t do that, especially not as proud Pashtuns. My father always said that heroism is in the Pastun DNA. I am Malala p.180
After the BBC blog ended, Malala featured in a documentary made by New York Times reporter Adam B.Ellick. She also received greater international coverage and her identity about writing the BBC blog was revealed. In 2011, she received Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize and she was nominated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the International Children’s Peace Prize. Her increased profile and strident criticism of the Taliban caused Taliban leaders to meet, and in 2012, they voted to kill her.
On 9 October, 2012, a masked gunman entered her school bus and asked “Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot at you all.”
Malala was identified and she was shot with a single bullet which went through her head, neck and shoulder. Two other girls were also injured, though not as badly as Malala.
Malala survived the initial shooting, but was in a critical condition. Her father was convinced she would die and told the village to prepare for her funeral. Her critical organs were failing and she developed an infection. In a coma, she was moved to a hospital in Rwalpindi. Later on the 15 October she was moved to Birmingham in the United Kingdom for further treatment at a specialist hospital for treating military injuries. A couple of days later, she came out of a coma and responded well to treatment. She was discharged on January 3, 2013 and moved with her family to a temporary home in the West Midlands. Writing in her book “I am Malala” she writes.
“It was a miracle I was alive” (p.237)
She also writes about her lack of bitterness or desire for revenge.
“My only regret was that I hadn’t had a chance to speak to them before they shot me. Now they’d never hear what I had to say. I didn’t even think a single bad thought about the man who shot me – I had no thoughts of revenge – I just wanted to go back to Swat. I wanted to go home” I am Malala p.237
Response to Assassination Attempt
Her assassination received worldwide condemnation and protests across Pakistan. Over 2 million people signed the Right to Education campaign. The petition helped the ratification of Pakistan’s first right to education bill in Pakistan.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Yousafzai was a symbol of the infidels and obscenity. However, other Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against the Taliban leaders and said there was no religious justification for shooting a schoolgirl.
