Thank you “Malala’s Attackers” and sorry Malala
The disastrous story of 9/11 might have been a menace for Americans but it indeed turned a blessing for the people of Afghanistan when the then U.S government and international community heeded to root out the terrorist-empire vaguely led by Taliban in Afghanistan. Same seems the case of school-going 17 years Swati girl, Malala Yousafzai; when some detractors hit her in the head with a gunshot when she was in her school van moving back to home.
She was hit because she voiced for the cause of girls to have equal right to education in Swat, Pakistan. She got fame internationally and the world echoed her voice to the rest. The international community learned about the atrocities of the people of Swat received by the hands of incubated religious terrorists in her homeland. The world community and Pakistani army finally had to fight against terrorism in Swat and eradiated them from the area thus peace prevailed there. She won awards after awards and finally she got the Nobel Peace Award, and became the youngest girl winning this award. This all become possible because of the attackers, Thank you “Malala’s Attackers”.
This Peace Nobel award is not just a piece of metal but it is a challenge, a certificate that Pashtun are peace loving people. This is the award, the international community awarded indirectly to people of Swat confessing their peaceful struggle against terrorism and religious extremism. Swat historically, known as the Switzerland of Asia, embraced the art of life for centuries.
Pashtun of the area in general but in the region in particular, remained the ambassadors of peace. The valley stayed a cradle of peace for centuries. From Ashoka the great to Bacha Khan Area, all pashtun leaders and their political movements preached the sweet language of peace and love. It is the place where Buddha the great, the symbol of peace, lived and his religion of peace flourished in the valley and across the Durand line. Stupas of Budha’s, Zoroastrianism and Hindu religions originated in Swat valley centuries ago, still sing the song of peace. The verses of Vedas, the ancient Hindu religion’s holy book contains the names of the rivers, people and neighborhood of the valley.
Today we can see in FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Quetta or across the Durand line in Afghanistan. The nation’s past history has been brimming over with stories of thousand Malala Yousafzai. Malalai of Maiwand, the girl through her revolutionary poetry inspired Afghan youths against the British troops in the battlefield of Mainwand area in Afghanistan, she eventually embraced martyrdom.
But it was Malalai whose poetry stirred the Afghan’s youth blood and they finally embraced defeated British army and turned the defeat into a victory. The current example is that of Raza Gulla, her daughter and daughter-in-law. They roused against Taliban in Farah province of Afghanistan and fought for ten hours and finally killed 25 Taliban in the battlefield.
But sorry! Really sorry Malala Yousafzai! You were born among the people who have religiously been intoxicated and culturally contaminated. You have born in a country where even the educated ones have beards in their abdomens and religion has become a tool of terror and exploitation of the mighty ones. The women in this society are deemed a curse, a commodity and her social status is less than a pet animal.
When she cooks food, the males are served first, at the end leftovers are for dogs and women. You are candidly endeavoring for a noble cause to educate their children and bring them to stand in the line of civic and cultured people but in reward, they messed at you with their filthy propaganda aimed for character assassination of you, It is not something new but historically been the way of the world in wars between protagonists and antagonists.
But the majority of enlightened and cultured people among the world overtly support you and you candid cause. Around the globe, the eyes of millions of people winked with tears and they thumbed up to you when you were receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The social media was bursting for you with praises and appreciation of intellectuals, statesmen, countries heads, government representatives, writers, poets, renowned journalists and others across the world. So the propagandists will vanish and their negative remarks about you are politically buoyant.
You may term it a cause and effect, political situation, destiny or whatever. But thanks to Malala attackers whose act of terror turned a blessing and an opportunity for the area people via Malala Yousafzai. The attack attracted the world’s eyes to the atrocities the people of Swat, FATA and others are getting by the hands of Taliban and their Godfather. Malala, through her actions , devotion and character integrity, showed the world the real face of religious extremists incubated in Swat, Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) and other areas in Pakistan. The Nobel Peace prize to Malala Yousafzai bears out that Talibanization and religious extremism is not the product of Pashtun society but nurtured as ‘live arsenal’ for the notorious strategic depth policy in the region.