My response to a facebook friend’s question:
Malala, Heroine or US puppet?
Okay, so who is Malala Yousafzai?
Malala was 14 years old when the Taliban, and yes one can argue about the ‘many’ Taliban outfits that operate in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but anyway, Malala was shot in the head by extremist Muslims whose world-view is confined to the scriptures that these ‘Talebs’ or ‘students’ have been indoctrinated in, which is a narrow, sectarian, misogynistic, racist, intolerant, bigoted way, at countless ‘madressahs’ or religious schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Malala was targeted by the extremists, the Taliban, because Malala advocated the rights of girls and women in her country to an education.
Simple. It’s not very complicated, and yes I do appreciate the geo-political significance that both Afghanistan and Pakistan has for the ‘west’ as well as the realpolitik that has caused that part of the world to be virtually ensnared in conflict for years and years, so I am not being naive when I say that the failed attempt on Malala’s life can be seen, very simply, as the Taliban, who whether people like it or not, are ‘terrorists’ in the true sense of the word as in they have embarked on a campaign to sow ‘terror’, ‘fear’ in the minds of ALL who would oppose their narrow, sectarian, fanatical worldview, so yes the Taliban, whoever they are and however many splinters groups they have are terrorists.
The shooting of Malala, a 14 year old girl, because she simply spoke out and up against the narrow, misogynistic, racist worldview of the people i.e. the extremists, the Taliban, call them what you will, who are firmly rooted in a completely distorted and morally corrupt interpretation of what their religion’s tenets teach.
I don’t know how Malala’s speech at the UN can be seen as her becoming a ‘US puppet’.
It baffles me, and I am reminded of something that Professor Norman Finkelstein wrote about in ‘The Holocaust Industry’, and that is the manner in which ‘we’ perceive the ‘others’ and their crimes as being heinous and to be (and rightly so) condemned, yet, we are conspicuously silent when ‘our’ people, whoever ‘our’ people are, carry out heinous crimes.
It doesn’t only baffle me, but it angers me, when a 14 year old girl in Pakistan is shot in the head and almost killed by Muslim religious extremists and why?
Because she advocates the right of women to an education. Simple, huh?
I am further baffled by the expectation placed on a 16 year old girl, who was shot in the head when she was 14 and who has spent the past couple of years receiving in medical treatment for an attack that almost killed her and her fellow pupils because the Taleb (which simply means ‘student’ – ironic, isnt it) who shot her wanted to silence her, and thus by sowing terror in the minds of fellow pupils and parents, wanted to make a statement that women and girls should not DARE challenge their narrow worldview.
And if someone dares to disobey these self-appointed men, always MEN, always ALWAYS MEN, who proclaim to be the sole spokesMEN of Islamic religious beliefs and practices, then that someone must be silenced, and in Malala’s case, to silence a 14 year old girl with a bullet in her head.
Malala a US puppet because she didn’t mention drone strikes, or US foreign policy, or US and UK invasions and atrocities in the Middle-East and elsewhere?
Malala Yousafzai is a 16 year old who narrowly escaped death when a fanatical MAN shot her in the head to silence a GIRL, a WOMAN who dared to defy the MEN who took it upon themselves and appointed themselves, again ALL MEN, as the only carriers of the ‘truth’.
And so, when on her 16th birthday, Malala gives a speech at the UN, in which she mentions and elaborates on the mindset of the people who would have her silenced, and because Malala did not mention the drone strikes, so that makes Malala a US puppet?
Lets be real here, and lets be frank as well, and let us shed this veneer of indignation that we hurl around when it suits us, and the causes close to our hearts, while matter-of-factly dismissing a 16 year old girl, who against all odds fought for, and continues to fight for the rights of women and girls to an education in Pakistan.
So Malala Yousafzai did not mention drone strikes, and Malala Yousafzai did not tackle, in depth, the atrocities carried out by the US invasion of Iraq and many other things that rational, humane people the world over are united in opposition to, namely the dastardly actions of state power and state terrorism by the US, Israel, and their allies.
Does this mean Malala Yousafzai is a “US Puppet”?
The question itself implies many things, and again I am not being naive when we see Malala being hailed by the US and others.
WE should hail Malala.
Why haven’t we, with our indignation at all things the ‘west’ does, why haven’t WE welcomed Malala’s stand against misogyny and patriarchal religiously accented bigotry?
Why do we now question Malala, again a 16 year old girl shot in the head for simply wanting to be educated?
Where was this indignation when Malala was shot by the Taliban?
Why did ‘we’ not airlift Malala for medical treatment in ‘our’ countries?
But since Malala was treated medically in the UK, and because now Malala has given a speech at the UN, and has become the face of every woman and girl’s right to an education, and because she is (hardly surprisingly) being hailed as a survivor of a heinous terrorist attack on a defenceless 14 year old girl, WE now choose to pick apart Malala’s speech, and almost gleefully attempt to poke holes in this 16 year old’s words, and all because Malala Yousafzai failed to mention drone strikes, etc.
Of course the drone strikes are horrendous and tantamount to murder and ‘state terror’ against sovereign countries.
Of course the US and the west’s vested interests and their pursuance of those interests has led to a protracted ‘war on terror’ and the black hole that is Guantanamo Bay.
Hell, why didn’t Malala mention:
Drone strikes.
Israeli Apartheid.
Guantanamo Bay.
The Rohingya.
And while we’re on what Malala didn’t say, why don’t ‘we’ stand up and make our voices heard when:
The Baha’i community in Islamic Iran is being persecuted.
The Hindu and Shiite and Sikh and Christian communities in Pakistan are one sentence away from being sentenced to death for supposedly ‘insulting’ Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
Women aren’t ‘allowed’ to drive a car in Saudi Arabia.
Women are murdered in cold blood in the name of ‘family honour’.
Girls are terrorised by MEN, always, always MEN, when they dare to attend school.
One could go on, but it would detract from Malala Yousafzai’s message, a powerful message to the world, including the US and the UK and Pakistan, India, South Africa etc that GIRLS and WOMEN are standing up to demand from their own governments, the RIGHT to an education.
That the basic human rights and dignity of ALL women, the world over are upheld by each and every government and country and society.
Malala’s speech at the UN focused on education.
The right to be taught.
The right to an education.
Malala Yousafzai is 16 years old and spoke at the UN and if Malala’s speech inspires even a fraction of those listening to her, it will be a victory over the forces of male-chauvinism, religious bigotry, wars of terror and wars against terror that are used to justify imperialism.
If a fraction of those who listened to Malala’s speech are inspired by her speech to actually do something, it will spawn a grassroots movement the world over to fight for the rights of women in countries and societies where women are still seen and treated as second-class citizens.
Malala Yousafzai’s message is simple:
every child deserves the right to an education.
Long live the indomitable and never-to-be silenced spirit of Malala Yousafzai!
Malala Zindabad!
Phambili Malala Phambili!
The struggles continue…
Scribbled Verse 