Two stories and a video to help us remember that there’s worse things in life than living with Republicans, even Teabagger Republicans. First, a lovely short piece in TNR by Mira Sethi:
When I met Malala Yousafzai last month in London, almost a year after the Taliban tried to kill her, she was sitting in a chair with her hands folded peacefully in her lap, like a person of influence accustomed to breathless inquiries. A red woolen shawl rested over the swoop of her thick black hair. When she smiled, it was hard to tell that her left jaw had been reconstructed. I had never met a 16-year-old so assured.
Of course, when she was on the Pakistani talk show “A Morning with Farah” in 2011, I had never seen a 14-year-old so assured…
“I don’t blame them,” she said when I asked her about the conspiracy theorists. “There is a severe dearth of leaders. The people don’t trust anyone anymore. They are constantly searching for answers, and there are no good answers, so I don’t blame them.”
Relatively open societies with a freer flow of information are less conspiracy-oriented than closed ones with controlled information. Which means that Pakistan—with its legacy of dictatorships and its smattering of high-profile state agencies that creep into every aspect of life, from tapping phones to kicking out foreign journalists whose reporting doesn’t quite sound the right notes—has a heightened sense of paranoia. As a culturally conservative society, Pakistanis are conditioned to secrecy. It’s how we grow up….
And tne NYTimes has an 11-minute short documentary accompanying film maker Adam B. Ellis’s story:
There is a story to Malala Yousafzai’s improbable transformation from a quiet, deferential 11-year-old living near Pakistan’s tribal areas to a teenage spokeswoman for girls’ education. Malala, shot in the head by the Taliban last year, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, to be announced on Friday.
It begins with her determined father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, but gets pushed forward by intense news media coverage of her daring campaign. I met Malala in 2009, when she was determined to defy the odds and become a doctor. I spent six months making two documentaries about her life that helped bring her brave campaign to the world, transforming her into a public figure. After the Taliban tried to silence her, The New York Times wove the footage together into a single, 32-minute documentary.
Since the attack last October, I have at times struggled with a question journalists often confront: By giving her a platform, did I inadvertently play a role in her shooting?…
While my original documentary tells the story of Malala’s struggle for education in the face of the Taliban, this back story also raises some sobering and difficult questions. Malala was a brave young girl, advocating for a better future for all girls in her country, but was it fair for her to fight so publicly in such a dangerous environment? Or was she thrust into the limelight by adults captivated by the power of a child staring down the Taliban? …
Belafon
Sometimes the answer to every question is yes. She sounds like she’s mature enough to make her own decisions. But sometimes, it takes someone as unique as Malala to make everyone else stop and listen.
gogol's wife
Did Snowden beat her out for the Sakharov Medal, or has that not been announced yet?
Looks as if she’s getting it:
http://www.euractiv.com/global-europe/parliament-set-sakharov-2013-lau-news-530916
I can’t believe that was even a question.
Mandalay
@gogol’s wife:
Not only that, but your link suggests that she is also in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She is one of the most incredible people I have ever come across. Just a truly great human being.
David Savard
She will have to fight valiantly and hard against those, even in her own family, who wish to use her for their own ends. It will be a hard and difficult struggle, but let us all hope it is a long one. With the bad guys gunning for her, she may not be long for this world, and that would be a tragedy, in every sense of the word.
Long Tooth
“Or was she thrust into the limelight by adults captivated by the power of a child staring down the Taliban? …”
Bingo.
Cris (without an H)
Zen Pencils is always worth a mention: Malala Yousafzai: “I Have The Right.”
MattR
Sounds like Malala is a leech on society who expected others to pay for her medical bills after she was shot.
(sorry. been reading too many comments from Republicans)
piratedan
@MattR: those were just surveyor’s symbols according to Sistah Sarah
Trollhattan
Funny that there, nobody would have thought twice had the “quiet, deferential 11-year-old” been married off to some geezer, but education? Zut alors!
Mandalay
@Anne Laurie: From your NYT link…
When a country of 180 million people spends more on subsidizing its airline than educating its citizens it seems a bit misguided to make the Taliban the bogeyman for everything.
For all their differences, I suspect the Taliban and the Pakistani government are in agreement about the (un)importance of education for women.
Mnemosyne
@Long Tooth:
It’s tricky, though. From what I’ve heard of her, she still would have insisted on going to school and encouraging other girls to do so, which would mean that she probably still would have been shot. The only real difference is that she would have ended up in a local hospital instead of in London and might have died or been permanently impaired. So it’s not as easy as, If they didn’t give her the publicity, she wouldn’t have been shot! She could very well have been shot anyway but not gotten the level of care that she did because she was already famous.
Amir Khalid
@Trollhattan:
Fortunately for Malala, her father isn’t the kind to consider marrying off a preteen daughter rather than making sure she has an education. There are no doubt people denouncing him, or worse, for encouraging her to have such dangerous and (in their eyes) un-Islamic ideas as education for girls.
Nellie in NZ
Malala did a 26 minute interview on National Radio, here in New Zealand this morning. Listen, first, to hear intelligent interviewing (we often have Americans, who are being interviewed, express surprise at the quality of the questions). Then, get an extended feel for the intelligence and calm of Malala.
Long Tooth
@Mnemosyne: We were both 11 years old at one time.
You cannot convince me that any 11 year old– however intelligent– could possibly have found herself in that spot without the collusion of exploitive adults.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
Although he is overshadowed by Malala (who wouldn’t be?), her father is also a remarkable person. While he may seem somewhat naive about the dangers Malala faced (at least to a westerner with the wisdom of hindsight), he was obviously well aware that he was risking his own life by opposing the Taliban. A brave man.
Nellie in NZ
Sorry, the link didn’t show in my comment about Malala on National Radio. We’ll see if this works.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Long Tooth: So you don’t think 11 year olds ever get shot by religious fanatics for wanting to get an education? Or is it that you think a parent who insists on his daughter getting an education must necessarily be exploitative?
Alison
She’s going to be on the Daily Show tonight, too. Here’s hoping Jon is less of a jackhole to her than he was to Sebelius and doesn’t rattle of wingnut talking points about the Taliban….
I’m only partially kidding.
Mnemosyne
@Long Tooth:
So she should have shut up, stayed home, and married at 14 like all of the good little Pakistani girls?
It’s not like she would have escaped exploitation by not going to school. She just would have been exploited in a different way.
Mnemosyne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Correction — she was almost 16 when she was shot and had been an activist for girls’ education for four years starting when she was 11. So, no, she wasn’t a child when the Taliban tried to murder her. She was a young woman.
ETA: Edited for clarity.
Mandalay
@Nellie in NZ: Thanks for the info. Here’s the link:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2572119/malala-yousafzai-nobel-peace-prize-nominee
[ETA: And the ABs were incredible last Saturday.]
Tommy
I don’t have a kid myself. Heck not spent a ton of time around young children. But then my brother had this little girl. I spent a ton of time with her. She is 4.5. I can’t wrap my mind around how much is going on in that little head of hers. There is some pretty advance thought going on. I don’t know if adults told Malala to do this or that. But those saying that here, well I am pretty sure Katie could figure out on her own at less than five how wrong it was if she couldn’t attend school.
geg6
@Long Tooth:
Have you read anything about this remarkable young woman? She’s the real deal. And if you don’t think there are eleven-year-olds who are so inspired and brave as she is, you don’t spend much time around young people. I’ve met more than one, slightly younger and older too, who put pretty much every adult I know to shame with their courage and passion. She’s obviously exceptional even among that group, but I have no trouble accepting that she was fully aware of the danger and wasn’t pushed into anything she didn’t want to do.
Mandalay
@geg6:
This. Well said.
Tommy
@geg6: My niece doesn’t eat meat. She is less than five. My brother and his wife are not liberals and asked me if I told her not to eat meat. I am like (1) I eat meat and (2) I would never parent your daughter in that manner. Not my place.
Somehow she figured out we eat the animals she gets stuffed toys of. Well not all of them, but some of them :).
Like I said there is a lot of complex thinking going on in her mind.
scav
For a bit more background on the father, and the role of the mother too, there’s this Guardian Interview. Malala Yousafzai: ‘It’s hard to kill. Maybe that’s why his hand was shaking
Of course, if your mind is made up, this is just more evidence for manipulation. But she credits her mother for determination — so it also seems to be a family dynamic. Interesting nuanced interview I found, especially as it gets into public and private, pre-shooting and post-shooting personalities/persona.
Princess Leia
Heard she’s the frontrunner for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trollhattan
@Mandalay:
Mine’s 11 and in the course of one week–one will get every possible personality from her, all at no charge! Add her friends, classmates, soccer mates, etc. into the equation and it’s quite the tumultuous period in a kid’s life.
One big change from when I was in 6th grade, the girls are kicking the boy’s butts academically. They’d rather hit each other with rocks.
lamh36
Long Tooth
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I wrote that I was once 11 years old, and I remember.
Botsplainer
I took one of the most depressing calls of my career today. Suffice it to say that some children can be so broken that by the time they’re in their middle teens, there is no fixing them, and that caring adults have to pull away lest their own children be drawn down into the morass with them.
The teen in question had been sold by her mother starting when she was 5, and it apparently went on for a significant period of time. The results of such an upbringing are entirely predictable – lies, violence, running away, drugs, etc. The kid is completely beyond reach of any caregiver.
Tommy
@Botsplainer: Many years ago I ran a suicide hotline at a major university. Looking back as only a student I had no reason to do that. But I did. 99.9 percent of the calls we got were not people looking to harm themselves. Often they just wanted to talk to somebody that would listen to them.
But when I was running things and not just answering calls, well I was on call when that happened. The horror stories I was told of the abuse was something I can never unhear. A level of evil I can’t put to words.
Anna in PDX
I saw on the Foreign Policy “daily briefing” email that the Taliban just renewed their call to kill her. I don’t understand people.
debbie
There was an extended interview on BBC yesterday. Unbelievable how well-spoken Malala is. The Taliban is right to be afraid of her.
ruemara
@Botsplainer: I’m sorry. For you and for her. But sometimes, people can come back and thrive. You have to keep a sliver of light somewhere to stay out of the dark. Maybe she’ll find her way.
Steeplejack
@Alison:
Amen to that. I was just about to say the same thing.
Sandia Blanca
Her speech to the United Nations was electrifying–she is wise beyond her years.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Botsplainer:
There is some evidence that adolescents/teens are “naturally” sociopathic until their brain development is finished. Many of the teenage killers who were tried as adults and sentenced to life without parole because psychologists tested them and declared them “sociopaths” now get normal results on the same test.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a stretch if time when certain people are well-nigh unreachable. But that person may be reachable in a few months or years if s/he can be prevented from hurting others in the meantime. If the person needs psychiatric and/or recovery assistance, my ADHD/bipolar nephew did very, very well at this facility in Montana:
http://www.ybgr.org/
Gretchen
@Alison: I just saw the Daily Show interview. He was in awe of her, and let her be her remarkable self.
Gretchen
@Alison: I’m a big fan of Sebelius – she was my govenor before she went to Washington. But I thought she could have handled that interview better. John wanted to know why they couldn’t delay the penalty for not buying insurance for a year. I’m sure they had a good reason for it, and she kind of alluded to it by saying things happen to young people, and we all have to pay for it when someone gets uncompensated care in the emergency room. But she really didn’t explain their reasons for hanging tough on this one, and since I feel sure they have a reason for thinking this is important, her lack of foresight in being unable to explain this was troubling.
Paul in KY
@Long Tooth: Just because you were a typical 11 year old doofus at one time, doesn’t mean every 11 year old will/would act the same.
RosiesDad
@Alison: It was a great interview and Jon was both gracious and fawning.
She is an amazing young woman.
Josh
I’m glad she’s safe, I saw her interview with Jon Stewart and she blew me away! Its people like her that restore my faith in humanity. Ignorance is the single largest cause of violence in the world today; the only way to end radicalism is through education.