Malala Yusafzai: "There is this quality in me – I’m ready for all situations."

Malala Yusafzai, Pakistani Activist

I cannot get out of my mind (and heart) the 14 year old Pakistani girl shot in the head for speaking out against the Taliban. I've watched a 2009 documentary which profiled Malala and her family's struggle to educate young women in their village of Swat (warning, there are a few brief but disturbing images). This young woman is incredible, and her strength, bravery and courage is providing fuel for her recovery. I learned she's been a blogger for the BBC since the age of 11, writing under a pen name to avoid being targeted. A young Malala chronicled the two weeks of her life before the Taliban education ban was enforced in a diary which can be read online. In the years following, she gained momentum as she gave speeches in support of education for girls.

Her North Stars are clearly education for women and freedom for her people. There's an Urdi saying, "kis mitti kay banee ho?"--"from what clay were you fashioned?" What makes a child coming from the same soil as the Taliban, decide she will stand up for ideals precious to her: education and freedom, even though surrounding her is the constant expression of their opposites--degradation and oppression? These are my persistent ponderings when I hear Malala Yusafzai's story. What drives the girls in Malala's school to full attendance in the days following her murder attempt? These girls know an eternal truth--each human life is holy, precious and deserving, and this knowledge overshadows self-preservation. As the world responds with a wave of outcry to the brutal attempt to silence Malala Yusafzai, we lend voice to her recorded struggle:

"Sometimes I imagine I'm going along and the Taliban stop me. I take my sandal and hit them on the face and say what you're doing is wrong. Education is our right, don't take it from us. There is this quality in me--I'm ready for all situations. So even if (God let this not happen) they kill me, I'll first say to them, what you're doing is wrong."