Beautiful Malala

You have probably heard the news stories about her.  Malala Yousafzai.  On the way to school in Northwest Pakistan a year ago, with chemistry and calculus on her mind, a gunman boarded the bus she was on, asked, "Who is Malala?" and then shot her in the head.

Miraculously, she survived.

In a culture where girls are not valued, and where no one congratulated her parents when she was born,  Malala could have grown up with the lowest of expectations.  However, her father who is himself an educator, felt that she and other girls deserved an education and founded the school Malala attended and maintained it despite the stress of threats he lived with for doing so.  His beliefs and actions had a strong influence on his daughter, and she began writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym when she was just 11 years old that challenged the Taliban's views on the rights of women and girls. Although they tried to protect her anonymity, she became known in Pakistan and therefore also known to the Taliban. 

Now, one year later, she lives in England with her family, and she’s the famous survivor of this Taliban assassination attempt, an activist for education of women and girls, and in the running to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Tomorrow, on the one year anniversary of the assassination attempt, she will speak to CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti on The Current. I encourage you to listen in.  http://www.cbc.ca/radio/   Malala has also released a memoir, I Am Malala which is being released today. 

Here is a link to the address she gave to the UN on her 16th birthday. She encourages us all to speak up, be strong, and to fight for what is right.  A note of caution: you may be moved, so watch it with a tissue.
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/07/malalas-10-most-inspiring-quotes-from-her-un-speech.html

The speech is beautiful, strong, and inspirational.  Here is just a piece of it:
"I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me. I would not shoot him. This is the compassion that I have learnt from Muhammad-the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change that I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of non-violence that I have learnt from Gandhi Jee, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa. And this is the forgiveness that I have learnt from my mother and father. This is what my soul is telling me, be peaceful and love everyone.
Dear sisters and brothers, we realise the importance of light when we see darkness." 

Wishing you the beauty and "importance of light when we see darkness,"
hk