The Girl Shot by the Taliban, Becomes a Global Icon
Not what the Taliban had in mind.
The unfolding story of Malala Yousafzai comes with an inspirational quote:
“If Pakistan has a future, it is embodied in Malala Yousafzai,” the editorial reads. “Malala has shown more courage in facing down the Taliban than Pakistan’s government and its military leaders …. The murderous violence against one girl was committed against the whole Pakistani society. The Taliban cannot be allowed to win this vicious campaign against girls, learning and tolerance. Otherwise, there is no future for that nation.”
And this quote:
“the global struggle for gender equality is the paramount moral struggle of this century, equivalent to the campaigns against slavery in the 19th century and against totalitarianism in the 20th century.”
You’d think religious extremists would understand martyrdom. :-/
34 comments
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peterweal
October 12, 2012 at 7:26 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Will her fame keep her safe?
kraut
October 13, 2012 at 1:38 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Wss Kennedy safe in the US?
Rather superfluous question.
davidjanes
October 16, 2012 at 3:10 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
She’s in the UK, and they have managed to keep Rushdie safe.
Bill Gascoyne
October 16, 2012 at 8:10 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Rushdie has lived in the US for a number of years now.
davidjanes
October 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
He was still kept unmolested by UK security agencies while he was there. The Kennedy analogy is no more apt than mine.
bradleybetts
November 23, 2012 at 4:46 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I was quite proud of the way our Government handled the Rushdie incident
usually we’re the first to cave to Religious priveledge.
bradleybetts
November 23, 2012 at 4:50 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Agh, hit submit too soon.
I am even more proud of the way we’re handling this.
aronra
October 17, 2012 at 9:38 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
The Taliban say they’re going to target her again. Typical creationists; they don’t learn, and they’re too stupid to know when they’ve lost.
ellocotheinsane
October 19, 2012 at 8:33 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Apparently they are now targeting the Pakistani media for criticizing their ‘righteous’ attack on Malala … the level of cognitive corruption one needs to be in to actually feel enraged at being told that shooting a 14 year old girl is a bad thing, is beyond any sane person’s ability to comprehend.
jnorris
October 12, 2012 at 7:55 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Allah did not want her dead. The Taliban needs to totally reconsider their mission statement.
moarscienceplz
October 12, 2012 at 8:44 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
“You’d think religious extremists would understand martyrdom. :-/”
You know, I can’t recall any cases where the leaders of the Taliban or Al Caida ever strapped on a suicide vest themselves. Funny, that.
Mike de Fleuriot
October 12, 2012 at 8:58 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
We must not let this go to waste, bring it up with every Muslim and Islamic apologist. Ask where the millions of moderate Muslims that we are told exist, ask why we do not see them in the streets protesting this attack.
aronra
October 12, 2012 at 9:27 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
To be fair, there are millions of Muslims in the streets protesting this attack. This is great! Pakistan is actually threatening a sort of civil war against the Taliban inside their country. It will require a heavy military effort to do it, but the country as a whole is so uniformly pissed off right now that I think that’s about it for the Taliban in Pakistan. I’m hoping for nothing short of mobius vengeance old west style.
aronra
October 12, 2012 at 9:42 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
It seems I may get my wish.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/12/malala-yousafzai-fatwa-gunmen-pakistan?newsfeed=true
They’re not exactly ‘moderate’ Muslims, but they are protesting this attack rather overtly.
Mike de Fleuriot
October 13, 2012 at 2:38 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
A quote from that article, which shows my point.
“Sceptics, however, fear nothing will change, noting the handful of tiny public demonstrations on behalf of Yousafzai have been dwarfed by the huge, violent protests that greeted the YouTube trailer for the blasphemous Innocence of Muslims film last month”
Yes, it’s a start, but I fear by this time next week it will be over.
innocentinfidell
October 13, 2012 at 12:26 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
People in Pakistan probably don’t go to the streets to condemn this action because of fear, they aren’t really sure who is or is not a Taliban supporter and fear that they might be targeted just as this young girl was. Its like expecting the Jews in 1939 to take to the street of Munich protesting the Nazi party, they would only be outting themselves in many respects. But I do agree, societies change from within, perhaps this little girl might bcome a modern aged Gandhi? should she live and go on to speak more truths to her people.
Women for Rights
October 13, 2012 at 3:21 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
To know that scum of the earth decided to inflict harm on a young girl whose only wish is to go to school and encourage the same for other children is disturbing. The group responsible (I don’t want to dignify them by saying their “chosen” name…)…so I will call them “creeps” is actually threatened by this girl because she has knowledge. She is smart. She can read. She knows the motives behind the “creeps”. I am sure the entire groups of “creeps” can’t even read one letter of their alphabet. That is why Malala and all children in school are huge threats to them. Because once the children become educated they will know the TRUTH about EVERYTHING!!!! The creeps think that by supressing the children from learning the TRUTH they can control everyone in their society. How SAD and SCREWED UP that is! They are brainless scum of the earth! Sad that they can’t even read or comprehend this message.
I pray that this young girl becomes politically active with TEETH and will finally put an end to all the SCUMS!!!
God speed with your healing Malala….the children need you!!
Be strong!!!
mechtheist
October 14, 2012 at 7:55 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
“Malala has shown more courage in facing down the Taliban than Pakistan’s government and its military leaders ….”
You’d think a lot of harping on this point would maybe goad them with enough embarrassment to get serious about taking out the Taliban. But then, what about the hundreds? thousands? of other little girls they’ve been attacking in horrible ways? Time Magazine had that cover with a girl who’d had her nose and ears hacked off, we can hope their camel’s backs are breaking all over, but don’t hold your breath.
StevoR
October 17, 2012 at 3:05 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Taslima Nasreen had a great post a month or three ago about the taliban poisoning schoolgirls too.
Its far from the first time Islamists have murdered children.
What dishonorable cowardly scumbags the fundamentalist Jihadists all are. They keep proving that by their actions time after time after time.
Time we all said NO MORE! NEVER AGAIN! and allowed them and their apologists no more excuses and no more quarter.
bmiller
October 17, 2012 at 8:32 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
So no more quarter?
Given recent and ongoing history, what does this mean? Even more cities leveled, drone strikes, arms shipments to wonky corrupt “Presidents” whose “own” troops turn on us? Or are you of the “nuclear final solution”/let god sort them out school, because there is no simple way to tell, in many cases, who are the “terrorists” and who are the “civilians”.
aronra
October 17, 2012 at 9:51 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I have hope that this is the broken camel’s back, that this the turning point wherein Pakistan’s equivalent of the KKK lose public favor across all demographics becoming forcibly subdued and diminished. I also see Malala bouncing back from this with [pardon the pun] a vengeance. If she’s smart -and she’s obviously VERY smart- she could wield more power, and effect greater progress than any Paki in modern history. That’s what I’d like to see.
Following her story, (starting from when she was eleven) is like watching a made-for-TV movie unfolding in real life. She is amazing.
Rambleale
October 22, 2012 at 7:48 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I just thought I should inform you that here in the UK the term ‘Paki’ is not used as a social expectable abbreviation, it is right up there with the N-word as a racial slur.
Since a lot of us Brits (that abbreviation is groovy however)follow you I thought it best to tell you, so no one gets the wrong idea.
grumpyoldfart
October 14, 2012 at 4:11 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
My guess: The loudest protesters will be dead before the end of the year and the Taliban will continue their fight to gain control of the country.
bmiller
October 17, 2012 at 8:44 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
sadly, I fear you are correct. But…maybe this can be a watershed event? Even in the tribal territories the Taliban are a minority position.
specialist87
October 17, 2012 at 5:34 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Her misfortune is nothing I’d wish upon anyone that is trying to better gender rights. Though there’s nothing more hypocritical than a Muslim trying to condemn the rights of their own edicts. It’s a shame that the Taliban had to enforce the rigorous doctrine that is any Judeo-Christian mindset, but I don’t see anything progressing in the name of equal rights as long as religion is the cornerstone of the MENA.
bmiller
October 17, 2012 at 8:17 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Well….hypocrisy is a universal human failing. We are all guilty of it and I wouldn’t emphasize this aspect of it. We should be happy to see Muslims condemning the more violent elements in their faith. Christianity, after all, has plenty of violent elements in its history (albeit lesser doctrinal blood thirstyness)
One might point out the hypocrisy of Americans (or Westerners in general) criticizing a foreign country or population, given the blood on our hands (have the Taliban ever leveled an entire city, like the U. S. did in fallujah…or used depleted uranium and other toxic substances which have cost birth defects and cancer rates to skyrocket?)….in this very region in question.
specialist87
October 17, 2012 at 9:47 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
We have much blood on our hands, and imperialism/global intervention at the cost of blood is highly against my principles of how a country should be run. Though my hypocrisy lies within my citizenship of the U.S. whilst I write this, but nonetheless I can still hold my beliefs and hope that the convergence of other like-minded individuals will coalesce at some point in time.
I disagree with your stance on Muslims condemning those that take their religion “too” seriously. This quote best sums up my feel on those opposing extremism:
We need to have inoculation against plague, not the spread of a more gentle version of it. – Christopher Hitchens
bmiller
October 17, 2012 at 11:17 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Ah Christopher Hitchens. Wasn’t he all in favor of dropping nuclear bombs on Middle Eastern cities?
While I agree that reliigon in all fomrs is questionable, I’ll take (with a grain of salt) the milder version at least as an ally on issues like this. Because we are still a decided minority and we need allies (certainly on topics like this).
bmiller
October 17, 2012 at 11:20 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
In my darker thoughts, I might also question if “religion” is “the plague”, as human beings seem to find plenty of reasons to fight and steal and rampage, with religion often only the fig leaf covering up what they would do anyway. Not denying that the Abrahamic faiths in particular seem especially prone at justifying violence.
codemonkey
October 18, 2012 at 1:15 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
@bmiller
To play devil’s advocate, can you think of a plausible scenario where, minding your own business in some country, you can be accused of damaging a fiction book and be lynched for it by your neighbors, and the scenario does not involve the Koran?
And yes, perhaps you can, but please don’t miss my point for the pedantic details. The point is that beliefs are operative. People operate according to what they believe to be true and just. Some people have the belief that certain kinds of speech and action deserve death merely because they are offensive. These beliefs need to be changed, and if they are replaced with better secular humanist beliefs, then we have every reason to expect less violence. I strongly believe that changing beliefs can affect behavior, and changing behavior can make our world a better place.
specialist87
October 18, 2012 at 2:05 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I agreed with his single quote, not his whole stance on other political issues, though it does hit on what we are talking about. I feel the U.S.’s presence in the MidEast was completely perpetuated by a leader gun-ho on absolving his father’s (Bush Sr.)past grievances on top of unknown elements that the U.S. may never know.
I would never suggest that the end of faith will ever solve all of mankind’s problems, there’s way too much chaos that lies in other depths, but it would be a good start towards a more rational, and evidence-based society.
davidhart
October 22, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
“Ah Christopher Hitchens. Wasn’t he all in favor of dropping nuclear bombs on Middle Eastern cities? ”
Christopher Hitchens was famously in favour of the military effort to depose Saddam Hussein, considering him to be more dangerous than the average tyrant (he supported Hussein’s ousting as a matter of principle, though of course he took issue with the dimwitted mistakes the G W Bush administration made in the process).
I think you may be confusing him with Sam Harris, who has a passage in The End Of Faith in which he describes a scenario in which a nuclear first strike against the Muslim world becomes the West’s last resort (the scenario is, if I remember rightly, that a group with the sort of eagerness for jihad that the Taliban display has taken control of a country with a nuclear arsenal and is threatening to use it for the purposes of destroying the unbelievers). As he makes clear, he is not in favour of such action, but he is worried that if the Muslim world does not manage to marginalise its extremist fringe, it may become inevitable.
womenforrights
October 23, 2012 at 3:22 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
These people (extremists/fundamentalists….whatever you want to call them) have been brainwashed from the moment they were conceived. Their own mother loathed the scum that impregnated her against her will….What positive vibe did the developing child receive over the nine months? Unless people of true, strong HUMANE morals are able to stand up for the children in those communities, the children/women are at risk of repeating the unfortunate crimes of humanity inflicted on them and their families. We can’t heal these communities with hate and violence….but without support (non-corrupt legal system, political system, law enforcement) for the innocent in these communities, they cannot evolve. Their dreams (if they even dream) will never be realized. Some would say that life can never change in countries such as Pakistan because it is impossible to change a religion. What is actually happening in such countires is suppression of the innocent and has nothing to do with religion. It is so deeply disturbing on every possible level for people around the globe who are continuing to witness such atrocities in this day and age. Stop the fighting and start living! That is my message of peace. If you would rather strap explosives to your body, do us all a favor and blast yourself because the rest of us are supposed to choose when our time is up! And if followers of islam want to really lead a life of peace then for heaven’s sake please read about Jesus….a prophet of peace who demonstrated his miracles before many!
Nick Gotts (formerly KG)
October 30, 2012 at 10:20 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Ah, so you recommend Muslims abandon their ludicrous, intolerant, misogynistic, homophobic, authoritarian belief-system based on ridiculous stories of miracles… for another ludicrous, intolerant, misogynistic, homophobic, authoritarian belief-system based on ridiculous stories of miracles.