Malala

               Over the past three months, we have rummaged through ideas that define who we are as a gendered society. We have recognized that our greatest barrier to equality is perhaps that many people do not recognize that there is still so much left to be done for American women. It takes a class like Media384 to teach people who are living through this that it is happening, and that they have to do something about it. What happens if everybody knows what is happening, and many want to do something about it, but they cannot use the media to do it?

               In 2007, several Pakistani anti-government organizations officially declared themselves to be the Tehrik-i-Taliban, and began a reign of terror that the Pakistani government has been unable to counter. The Taliban has imposed radical restrictions on women's rights, and has attempted to ban women's education. This means that bright young girls in Pakistan, like fifteen year old Malala Yousufzai, must risk their safety and the safety of their families every day that they choose to secretively go to school. In January 2009, the BBC asked Malala's father, an activist for women's education (an impossibly dangerous title), to find a schoolgirl who was willing to blog about Pakistan's educational challenges. Malala, twelve at the time, took it upon herself to handwrite entries and pass them to the BBC, who would then post them on her blog, Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl.

               While she blogged, over a hundred girls' schools were bombed and destroyed, terrifying families into keeping their children home from classes. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" Malala demanded in response to these attacks. Meanwhile, Malala's father went in and out of hiding to avoid punishment for his family's activism. Bodies of teachers and policemen hung in the center of her town, Swat Valley. The Taliban attempted to create an ultimate sort of patriarchy, believing that "god created man to rule the world," and that women were property, with no true rights of their own (Hooks). However, they did not account for Malala's wits, and the firmness of her desire to become an educated, successful woman.

               On October 9, 2012, Malala proudly took an exam at her school and then hopped onto a bus to return home. A Taliban gunman walked onto the bus and fired a bullet into Malala's head. It was later revealed that the Taliban had been planning to kill Malala, a bright young child who is sure to bring promise to her country, for three months. To the horror of the Taliban, Malala recovered magnificently, and used the incident to draw international attention to her cause. Malala's voice has reached the UN, which has launched a petition that calls for the education of every Pakistani child and the end to discrimination against girls in all countries. Furthermore, a petition to nominate Malala for the Nobel Peace Prize has been drafted to bring more attention to the plight of millions of schoolgirls who are unable to safely study basic math, let alone take classes such as Media 384 (SIGN!!!!!!).

Source: Malala for the Nobel Peace Prize Peittion

               Despite extraordinary difficulties, Malala and her father have managed to take hold of the media in their own way, not so that people in their society could learn about what was happening, but so that societies like ours, which face very different challenges but are physically able to voice concerns, can be aware of issues that cannot be voiced as easily. As feminists who can legally use all sorts of media, mainstream or not, to pass along information, and get people to care, we have an obligation to not only use this ability to overcome our own challenges, but to help feminists who have not been able to progress as rapidly.