"Weakness, fear, and hopelessness died," said then-15-year-old Malala Yousafzai about the outcome of her own personal fight against Islamist extremism and terrorism. In her own battle, one for which she put her own life on the line and almost lost it when she was shot by the Taliban in her native Pakistan, she alone is trouncing the Talibs who tried to kill her. What is more, she is doing it around the world: She is changing hearts and minds, she is teaching leaders and ordinary men and women, she is leading a quiet revolution, and she is doing it without firing a shot, or even raising her hand in anger.
There are lessons in peacemaking, on what it means to be a human being, and on human dignity in the words and actions of this teenage girl who is likely to be a world figure for decades to come. If we are going to believe that ultimate peace will come through education and not bullets and bombs, it will be largely by the actions and words of this young girl. Her book "I Am Malala," published on the one-year anniversary of her shooting, is a haunting tour of the desperation of life under the threat of Islamist zealots and an expression of her young spirit and determination to keep the fight to be a full, free human being and to do it for others who can't speak.
Such courage deserves recognition, and such fight deserves alliance and support.
Yet, the same Nobel Peace Prize committee that awarded the prize to President Obama before he had an opportunity to deserve, ostensibly for "his calls to reduce the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons and work towards restarting the stalled Middle East peace process," the same organization
that failed to award the prize to Mahatmas Ghandi, ignored Malala's struggle and calls for education over extremism and her contribution to a new global debate that benefits a mankind faced with a lack of education that engenders terrorism, and awarded the 2013 prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons instead.
The Nobel committee can ignore her, but the world should take notice. She is a powerful voice for the rights of women and girls, often the first victims of zealotry and would-be terrorists. In many ways, she has become their most insistent advocate. Subjugated girls become mothers at an early age and their young boys are rudderless and susceptible when mothers are uneducated and unprepared to show them a better way. Despite more women than men on the planet, there are some 33 million fewer girls than boys in early education around the world. Repressive religious zealots want to force-keep the status quo. Malala is telling the world what it loses by ignoring the education of girls.
After meeting with President Obama, the 16-year-old said in a statement, published by the Associated Press: "I thanked President Obama for the United States’ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees. I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact."
What is more, however, is that she is telling that to people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to those growing up in radical Islam. But it is not a voice from the outside, rather, it is the conscience of Islam, a young Muslim voice out to refocus and recapture a great faith.
Oslo could have done a lot of good giving her the platform and recognition she deserves and which would have magnified her impact on the Muslim world. Oslo missed that opportunity, but Americans and Westerners have a unique opportunity to stand and take note of this young Muslim girl, to join her, and to cast away weakness and fear and exchange them for hope for a better educated, more peaceful world.
The Bravest Girl In the World
CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviewed Malala recently. The resulting report "The Bravest Girl in the World," yields a powerful 21 minutes that may refocus your priorities and change your decision to speak or not to speak on the education of girls, women's rights, and terrorism, as she certainly has already begun to change the world.
