I
haven’t been this angry in a long time. Maybe I’ve never been this angry. On
October 9, 2012, Taliban militants stopped a school bus filled with girls
returning home from school and asked for a girl named Malala Yousafzai. Malala
is a 14 year old girl from the Swat Valley in Pakistan . From the age of 11 years
old, she has been an activist demanding for her right to have an education. She
was forced to do that because the Taliban had been taking over Swat and blowing
up girls schools and committing other atrocities. Whoever resisted, they beat
them, humiliated them, shot them, beheaded them, and then left their corpses
out in the streets for everyone to see. Despite all of this, Malala had the
strength and courage to fight back by learning wherever she could whether it
was at school or at home. Last year she was nominated for the International
Children’s Peace Prize and awarded Pakistan ’s
first National Youth Peace Prize by Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister of Pakistan at
that time.
So you can
understand my horror and my fury when it was reported that these Taliban
monsters hunted down a 14 year old girl and shot her simply because she wanted
to go to school. Thankfully she is still alive and the bullet was retrieved
when she underwent surgery, but she’s still fighting for her life. I’m amazed
by her bravery and shocked that there are girls who are literally risking their
lives just so they can read books and learn math. I doubt that many Americans
think twice about how precious an education really is while riding their bus to
school. I know I never did. I never had to fight for the right to learn because
it was always a given in my life.
A Taliban
spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, justified their actions by saying, “She has become
a symbol of Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,” Mr.
Ehsan said, adding that if she survived, the militants would certainly try to
kill her again. “Let this be a lesson.”
All day I’ve been
cursing in my head at these disgusting creatures who dare to call themselves
men. No, they’re not even human. I hate them. I actually hate them. Who does
shit like this, let alone justifies it? And I’m even more frustrated at the
fact that I feel completely helpless. For everything that the Taliban has done,
for all the lives they have destroyed…I hope they get what’s coming to them.
Something far worse than death. I thought I would only read about such
brutality in history books, not the news.
Please read and
watch this video by Adam B. Ellick and Irfan Ashraf about Malala and her father
Ziauddin, who is a schoolteacher and a huge advocate for girls’
By-lena sharef
Some think bravery is living without fear
But that is not true
Bravery is living despite the fear
And doing what needs to be done
Even though you’re scared to death
Some can stand on the sidelines of life
And be content with what could have been but never was
But that is not true
Bravery is living despite the fear
And doing what needs to be done
Even though you’re scared to death
Some can stand on the sidelines of life
And be content with what could have been but never was
That is not me
I will not look back at the end of my life
Thinking of what could have been
I vow to live my dreams no matter what
I will stand up and be counted
Even when I’m one of the few or standing all by myself
I will proudly state before God and all who see
This is who I am and what I want to be..............sehar
I will not look back at the end of my life
Thinking of what could have been
I vow to live my dreams no matter what
I will stand up and be counted
Even when I’m one of the few or standing all by myself
I will proudly state before God and all who see
This is who I am and what I want to be..............sehar
Ultimate courage and bravery against mighty fundamentalists. Hats off to the girl!
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