Courage

Malala Yousufzai   is  the Nobel Peace prize nominee this year.  The feeling is somewhat heartening as well as  invigorating. Malala personifies everything that a girl child ought to be in a feudalistic male dominated society and culture. She looks confident smart and extremely sorted out in her long robes and head covered with colourful chadars. To the uninitiated, Malala Yousufzai is a Pakistani school pupil and education activist from the north western town of Mingora in the picturesque Swat Valley- The girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, last year on 10/09/12. The Pakistani school girl became a global inspiration after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban, an ultra orthodox terrorist group dominant in the  interiors of Pakistan. Apparently she has become famous- and I do not just mean being shot by the Taliban, which is a tragically common experience but the attention that followed. She is being dubbed as a "kid" who has been nominated for the prestigious Nobel in certain circles, but to me she seems an entirely genuine person with a thinking mind. It must have taken enormous courage to have spoken about girls' . She is candid when she says " I believe it's a woman's right  to decide what she wants to wear and if a woman can go to the beach and not wear anything , then why can't she also wear everything. " Having said that she goes on to clarify that she doesn't think a woman should cover her face in court or in other places where it is necessary to show my face because I want to show my identity." She regrets having penned a diary anonymously for BBC Urdu, this clearly proves that she wants to maintain her identity. Now this shows her clarity of thought and purpose. She has spoken about punishing the Taliban and later abandoned the idea, for she says that it would be much better to have a dialogue with them. This again is her mindset , very different from the Islamic laws , which advocates tit for tat.

So much for Malala but my concern is the arm chair activists and society leaders who speak eloquently about girls ' education and her rights yet deny it systematically for their domestic help and poor relatives . Same courage and vigour is shot down and panned out in common households across the Orient. While the old dowagers of the family dominate all policy decisions , the younger females toil and suffer right under their tutelage. The emancipation  of all women across all stratas of society is yet to come. Even in the West where Malala is being feted and applauded for her courage , women are educated and liberated yet suffer many humiliations as rape and abuse. The days of celebration is yet to become a reality.