The girl who dared to speak out against the Taliban

Malala Yousafzai

Teenage Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai speaks at a press conference during the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2015 in New York.

Photo credit: File

What you need to know:

  • On her birthday every year, Ms Yousafzai picks a destination where children’s rights have been trampled on and champions the cause for their education. On Tuesday this week, she turned 19.
  • A previous birthday was spent in Nigeria agitating for the rescue of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, and last year she was in war-torn Syria, campaigning for the education and safety of the children.
  • Herself a refugee, Yousafzai knows only too well the opportunities that are wrenched away from children in politically unstable countries, and has made it her life’s mission to campaign extensively to see that all children get an opportunity to go to school.

The youngest ever Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, on Tuesday last week took her campaign for girls’ education to Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, which is facing imminent closure by the government.

Ms Yousafzai, who was accompanied by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, met school girls from the five refugee camps that make up the Dadaab Complex.

“I am here today to speak for my Somali sisters who strive for education every day,” she said through a translator, addressing a crowd that had gathered at one of the schools to hear her speak. She drew little applause, probably due to the bad acoustics and the restless crowd that chatted and fidgeted throughout the speech.

But while most people were distracted and more concerned with taking pictures of the global icon that Yousafzai has become, 15-year-old Arlio Ali Abdi was hanging onto every word. The Form One student crouched at the front of the crowd with her eyes trained on Yousafzai, her brow knitted in concentration.

“I want to be like Malala, if I don’t die,” she told us later.

Abdi’s statement, though jarring, is grounded in reality.

“They say they want to send us back to Somalia, where I hear there is still war. I am afraid I might get killed. But if I survive, I want to finish my education and be like Malala,” she explained. She was born in the camps, and lives there with her mother and six siblings. Her father was killed in Mogadishu as the family was fleeing in 1991 to come to Kenya. She has never been to Somalia and all she knows about it she has learned from other people.

While the refugee camp currently provides free education for the refugee children, the closure of the camp next year in May will mean that the children would have to go back to Somalia where their education futures are uncertain.

GLOBAL ICON

Malala Yousafzai meets with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (R) at United Nations headquarters in New York. PHOTO | FILE

Rahma Noor, one of the girls who went back to Somalia last year via the ongoing voluntary repatriation had to come back to Kenya because her parents were unable to pay the expensive fees demanded by one of the few schools in Mogadishu. She is currently a Form Three student at Waberi Secondary School in Dadaab, and fears that returning to Somalia will kill her hope of any more education.

But the Kenyan government has remained adamant about shutting down the camps and sending the Somalis home, despite pressure from the UN and western governments. According to the Ministry of Interior and Coordination, Dadaab is too much of a security risk to stay open. It is seen as a breeding ground for terrorists who have cost Kenya greatly in terms of lives and destruction of property ever since the Kenya Defense Force was deployed to Somalia in 2011 to stabilise the country.

Recently, the UN acquiesced to Kenya’s demand for a closure, and pledged to provide the necessary support to ensure that the refugees are repatriated safely and with dignity.

“The refugees should not be forced to go back to Somalia if they do not want to. I also would like to ask the Somali government to ensure that the children have schools waiting for them in Somalia,” said Yousafzai, when asked about her opinion about the imminent closure of Dadaab.

Herself a refugee, Yousafzai knows only too well the opportunities that are wrenched away from children in politically unstable countries, and has made it her life’s mission to campaign extensively to see that all children get an opportunity to go to school.

“It would take only USD8.5 billion (approximately Sh860 billion) to educate all the children in conflict-ridden areas. The world can easily afford it. It is a shame that not enough is being done to give these vulnerable children an education,” she said.

On her birthday every year, Ms Yousafzai picks a destination where children’s rights have been trampled on and champions the cause for their education. On Tuesday this week, she turned 19. A previous birthday was spent in Nigeria agitating for the rescue of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, and last year she was in war-torn Syria, campaigning for the education and safety of the children.

In her campaign for children rights, Malala has given speeches at the highest level of the United Nations, and has met some of the most powerful heads of states in the world.

But long before Yousafzai was a global icon, she was just a school girl in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, growing up in a normal family, fighting with her brothers and competing with her classmates for the number one position in class at the end of every term.

What set her apart was her constant speaking out for the education rights of the children in Pakistan, especially after the Taliban took control of Swat and decreed that all girls should stop going to school, saying that it was haram - against Islam teaching. As young as 11 years, Yousafzai was a constant thorn in the side of the Taliban, accompanying her father whenever he made speeches in support of girl-child education.

She made speeches of her own and appeared on local television. She attracted an audience beyond Pakistan when she started writing a diary on the BBC under the pen name, Gul Makai, talking about her experiences as a girl fighting to stay in school in a Taliban-controlled Pakistan.

TYPICAL TEENAGER, NOT

Yousafzai shot to fame in 2012 at 15 when she was shot in the head by the Taliban on her way home from school, a story she tells in great account in her biography, I am Malala, co-authored with British journalist Christina Lamb. Two other girls, school mates of Yousafzai’s, were shot in the incident, but suffered less serious injuries.

She was airlifted to Britain for specialised treatment and has remained a resident there until today since Pakistan remains unsafe for her and her family.

“When they shot me, the Taliban made a great mistake. Where before I spoke only for myself and for the girls in Swat, now I speak for all the girls in the world who have been denied an education,” she says with a wry smile.

She has since won a long string of awards, the most prestigious being the Nobel Peace Prize, which she won in 2014 at the age of 17, making her the youngest ever Nobel Laureate.

Kailash Satyarthi (L), Indian anti-child labour activist and Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai. The two were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2014 at the Nobel Institute in Oslo on October 10, 2014. PHOTOS | FILE

She started the Malala Fund three years ago and says that some of her biggest successes have been being able to build schools in Pakistan, Lebanon and Jordan for Syrian refugee children.

For one so young, she has achieved so much, not least honorary doctorate and post-graduate degrees from universities in the UK, and it is easy sometimes to forget that she is just a teenager who has the same dreams and desires as those of teenagers elsewhere.

Yousafzai says that beyond the spotlight and the media attention, not much in her personal life has changed.

“I am still a school girl, currently at A-Level, studying History, Economics, Math and Religious Studies. My hope is to do Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and I hope to be offered admission into a good university such as Oxford or London School of Economics,” she said.

She is still in touch with her childhood best friend, Moniba, who she talks about extensively in her book, and says that even though they have not seen each other since Yousafzai left Pakistan, they Skype often.

“I dream of going back to Pakistan to see all my friends and relatives that I left behind,” she says.

“I miss being “normal” and a bit cheeky sometimes, now I have to be more mature because people say ‘Oh Malala you are now a Nobel Laureate how can you be so cheeky?’ so I have to be nice always,” she adds with a smile.

She however adds that she has two younger brothers who remind her that she is young.

“Her younger brother Atal wrote on her birthday card today, ‘As you are now a grown up woman of 19 years you must learn how to cook’,” says her father, chuckling.

It is hard to talk about Malala without talking about her father, Ziauddin, who is as much a central character in her book as Malala herself. He started a string of schools in Pakistan, Khushal Public Schools, one of which Malala and her brothers attended before the family relocated, and he was a recognised spokesman for education in the country.

He currently works as an education attaché for the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham, England, where the family has lived since 2012.

He has continued to play a central role in her life, as her parent and as her staunchest supporter in her advocacy work. Often, he travels with her when she goes on tours. Her mother, Tor Pekai Yousafzai, is media shy and reserved, and hardly ever makes any public appearances.

“When we were in Swat, Malala used to support me in my advocacy work. Now I support her, and it gives me the greatest joy to do so. She is a great leader and I see even bigger things ahead for her,” he says, adding that Malala often rests her head on his shoulder during long flights, something that speaks of the special connection between father and daughter.

Ziauddin is however quick to dissociate himself from pushy parents who hang on to their famous children.

FEARLESS SOLDIERS

Pakistani student who was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban, Malala Yousafzai addresses the assembly before receiving the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2013 at the Manison House in Dublin, Ireland on September 17, 2013. PHOTO | FILE

“I know a time will come when she will no longer need me, and I will gladly get out of her way. I would not want at all to intrude into her life if I were no longer needed,” he said.

But for now, he is still her parent and Malala is his little girl.

While in past interviews Malala has said that she does not fear for her safety even when she visits insecure places, her father is protective of her, perhaps due to the unerring instincts of a parent.

“The most important thing I wish for her is safety. Her life is very important and I would not want anything to jeopardise it,” he said.

He is very philosophical about the dangers experienced in some of the places Malala chooses to tour, saying that going to far-flung danger zones to campaign for education is akin to going to war, where fear has no place in the hearts of soldiers.

However, he admits that his family still battles with the trauma of what happened in Pakistan.

“We suffered in Pakistan, particularly Malala who was shot at, so there is that residual fear and trauma that we experience as a family. But out on the field, we are like warriors, and our focus is on how to be more efficient and focused in putting across our message,” he said.

He adds that his other children, both boys, Atal and Khushal, are very proud of their sister, but they want to pursue careers away from advocacy work.

“Khushal is interested in computers and might pursue IT, but Atal is not quite decided yet. They are smart children and I trust them to make their own decisions,” says Ziauddin.

Just like his daughter, Ziauddin’s dream is to one day return to Pakistan and pick up where he left, particularly in his work as a teacher, and to keep his schools running.

“My family and I made one promise to each other, that we will always be Pakistanis, and will never adopt the citizenship of any other country. One day when it is safe, we shall all return home.”

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FYI

  • Yousafzai’s story, as popular and famous as it might have made her, has not been without some criticism.

  • She has often been accused of at best being a mascot for the UN, and at worst of being a tool used by Western governments to showcase why failed Middle Eastern countries can only survive through western influences.

  • The criticism is sharpest in her home country of Pakistan, where her book has been banned in all private schools as it is seen to be a “negative influence” on Pakistani children, the argument being that Yousafzai is seen to have embraced her host country’s ideologies and abandoned those instilled in her in Pakistan.