Shot for Attending School
May 19, 2022 2022-05-19 12:05Shot for Attending School
Malala’s Story
Education is a human right, but equal schooling for every child is not so simple in some places. That is what a young Malala Yousafzai would soon realize before being shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating these beliefs. Yet through all of the perils she faced, the young woman pushed through and accomplished many feats for girls’ education. Her story is one of endurance, female power, and passion.
Born to Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai, Malala grew up with a thirst for knowledge. Being raised by her father, a teacher and education advocate that ran a girls’ school in their village, encouraged her passion. But at the age of ten, Taliban extremists raided her city of Swat Valley in Pakistan. They began forbidding cultural activities such as television, music, dance and eventually banning girls from attending school.
Life in Pakistan as a girl was hard enough but living under their conditions and forbidding education lit a fire in her. At just eleven years old, Yousafzai began her resistance against the Taliban (TTP).
In 2009 she was sought by the BBC and started blogging under the pseudonym Gul Makai. She described life under the Taliban’s reign and expressed her yearning to attend school. As conveyed in her first BBC diary entry, I Am Afraid, Malala paints a portrait of her belligerent hometown under war. Her nightmarish experiences manifested in text gave perspective to a new crowd.
Later in the same year, the TTP announced they would shut down all girls’ schools in Swat. Unease was fogging the air of Pakistan, but she continued to fight for her beliefs in her own way. In the end, she accomplished a miraculous 35 entries written from January to the beginning of March.
As this occurred, the TTP shut down and blew up more than 100 of said schools. A path to inspiring a revolution of activists was opening, but tensions and warfare arose the same. It became so worrying that she and her parents fled their country.
Despite this, Yousafzai was eager to continue advocating for her right to attend school. Malala and her father began speaking for girls’ educational rights in the media. By 2011, her name became recognized as she was nominated and awarded accolades such as the National Youth Peace Prize. Unfortunately, her incredible press would make her a target.
In 2012 15-year-old Malala rides the bus returning from school with her friends. The bus is then interrupted by two Taliban members asking for the young girl. When Yousafzai is recognized, the two shoot her in the head. Fortunately, she was airlifted and given medical care, surviving with half of her face paralyzed before enduring surgeries and rehabilitation.
After recovery, she attended school in England. However, her fight for education of all girls continues. Today, Malala has collected several awards and became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate at 17. Through establishing the Malala Fund with her father, she proceeds to aid girls’ education and inspire them to achieve what they set to do.
