Found in the most unlikely of places
Everything about the Malalai Yousufzai story is inspiring. The vernacular Pashto press even had a field day with her very name. It was too tempting for reporters not to bring up Malalai, the Afghan folk heroine who had once inspired the local warriors against the British in the Battle of Maiwand.
Young Malalai from Swat is inspiring enough in her own right, never letting the terrorists kill her hope. Even at the worst of times in Taliban-ruled Swat – when she, at first, risked her life by insisting on going to school and then, was forced to stay at home – she maintained a diary of sorts and later contributed a series of the same to the BBC’s website. She then shot to greater prominence when the national and international press, looking around for stories in a post-operation Swat, chanced upon this extremely articulate, intelligent and confident girl. But it wasn’t just the way she spoke that made her a TV-friendly appearance. The gumption with which she backed it up was something that would have shone through anyhow.
Her nomination for a prestigious international children’s prize and the subsequent award of a national peace prize by the prime minister are only the latest in what promises to be a long list of laurels.
For a media focused, to a criminally disproportionate extent, on the issues of the urban middle-class, it must have been an eye-opener for journalists and audiences alike to see a young girl passionate about very specific issues. A stark contrast from the affluent, far better educated urban youth who will get on any vague platform of “change” just to get a piece of protest chic. When Malalai talks about the militants in Swat, she doesn’t seek appeasement but action against their top-tier. When she is asked to name her political heroes, she names the legendary freedom fighter Bacha Khan and late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, neither of whom was ever a favourite of the aforementioned demographic that the media peddles its wares to.
Young Malalai wants to become a lawyer and a politician. Hers is a story that would find a way into the heart of the most hardened of cynics.
