Day: November 23, 2012

By: Farhad Taimoor

The recent shooting of the 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai has sparked an angry reaction across the country, resulting in widespread public outrage against the Taliban militants. Many of us hoped that this incident could lead our society to a consensus against the extremist ideology of these militants, but, unfortunately, all such hopes faded away when a section of our society downplayed this incident. They tried to confuse it with other issues like drone attacks and some even went to the extent of inventing baseless conspiracy theories against the poor girl. But on the other hand, the same people were out in the streets protesting with anger when the sad story of Dr Aafia Siddiqui became public.

Why so much anger against the atrocities on Dr Siddiqui and so much confusion and so many conspiracies on the shooting of Malala? Perhaps a comparison of our contrasting reactions can help us find some answers. But before I do that I want to make it clear that the purpose is not to prove one a terrorist and the other a hero but to precisely highlight why our reaction to these two incidents was so different.

Aafia Siddiqui was picked up by US and Pakistani agencies from Karachi on March 30, 2003. According to popular narrative, she spent the next five years, until July 2008, at the Bagram detention centre facing inhuman atrocities. She was rediscovered in July 2008 when her story became public. There are alternate narratives that negate this version and link her to terrorist-related activities. According to her uncle, Shamsul Hasan Farooqi, she was in Islamabad in January 2008, six months before she was found in Afghanistan.

He told media that Aafia came to his house in Islamabad on January 22, 2008 and asked him to put her in touch with the Afghan Taliban. Her name was reportedly given to the CIA by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged al Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. She was allegedly married to Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. She also opened a joint post office account with an alleged al Qaeda operative, al-Majid in the US.

It is true that despite these allegations, Aafia was never charged with any terrorist-related activities but, at least, this tells us that there are some question marks about her. But did we actually, as a society, try to find out the facts? Did we actually consider that she could be working for these terrorists? Hardly anyone did and the majority declared her ‘Daughter of the Nation’.

On the other hand, do we have same doubts regarding Malala as we have in the case of Aafia? The answer is no, but look what we did to her. We declared her a “US spy” and God knows what else. The involvement of the ISI in the disappearance of Dr Aafia can be clearly seen in all the narratives of her missing five years. Did we stage a single protest against the army/ISI, demanding of them to tell us the truth? Why were all our guns focused on the US while we knew that our people are involved?

We must ask ourselves this question. Are we a society that one can call seekers and upholders of truth and justice? Sincere regard for truth is loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery.

Our loyalty should be with the truth. But if we analyse our reaction to these two cases we can clearly see that our loyalty is with individuals, and our hatred for others is turning us away from justice. Dr Aafia was glorified because the US was the oppressor but Malala was disgraced just because the US praised her. Had we objectively and honestly analysed the two incidents, our reaction could have been the opposite.

This is our dilemma as a society. Over the years, we have corrupted our intuitive sense of right and wrong under the influence of this intolerant culture of militancy. And now when we look at the world through this lens of a ‘biased mindset’ it only allows us to see the world, as Stephen Covey puts it, not as it is but as we are, or as we are conditioned to see it.

We have lost our vision and to add to our misery we are in a constant state of denial. In the case of Malala and Aafia, we confused the real issues and let our hatred blind us to the obvious facts. If we are to become torchbearers of truth then we must get rid of our deep-rooted biases and hatreds.

Daily Times

MINGORA: For one month, the dreams kept coming — the voice, the shots and the blood. Her friend Malala slumped over says a report carried by the Time World.

Shazia Ramazan, 13, who was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot her friend Malala Yousufzai, returned home last week after a month in a hospital, where she had to relearn how to use her left arm and hand. Memories of the Taliban bullets that ripped into her remain, but she is welcoming the future.

“For a long time it seemed fear was in my heart. I couldn’t stop it,” she said. “But now I am not afraid,” she added, self-consciously rubbing her left hand where a bullet pierced straight through just below the thumb.

Now Shazia and her friend Kainat Riaz, who was also shot, returned to school for the first time since the Oct 8 attack when a Taliban gunman opened fire on Malala outside the Khushal School for Girls, wounding Shazia and Kainat in the frenzy of bullets.

“Malala is very brave and she is always friendly with everyone. We are proud of her,” said the 16-year-old Kainat, wrapped in a large purple shawl and sitting on a traditional rope bed. Her mother, Manawar, a health worker, sat by her side, praised her daughter’s bravery and with a smile said: “She gets her courage from me.”

Although conservative and refusing to have her picture taken, Kainat’s mother slammed attacks on girls’ education and warned that Pakistan would failif girls were not educated. Quick to laugh, Kainat — who comes from a long line of educators in her family — looked forward to returning to school. “I want to study. I am not afraid,” she said.

The authorities, however, are not taking any chances. Armed policemen have been deployed to both Shazia’s and Kainat’s home and will escort them both to school.Kainat’s home is hidden behind high walls with 8-foot-high steel gates, tucked away in a neighborhood of brown square cement buildings. A foul smelling sewer runs the length of the street where armed policemen patrol, eyeing everyone suspiciously.

Outside Shazia’s home, a policeman wearing a bulletproof vest sits on a plastic garden chair with a Kalashnikov resting across his knees. Three policemen patrol a nearby narrow street that is flanked by roaring open fires where vats of hot oil boil and sticky sweets are made and sold.

Shazia, who has ambitions to become an army doctor, is a stubborn teenager. She doesn’t want the police escort.“They say I need the police. But I say I don’t need any police,” she said, pushing her glasses firmly back on her nose. “I don’t want the police to come with me to school because then I will stand out from the other students. But I shouldn’t.”

Although she was barely 9 years old then, Shazia remembers those days.“Times were very bad. Girls were hiding their books under their burqas. Compared to then, now is a very good time,” she said, her pink shawl covering her head. “We are strong.”

Both the army and the police are deployed outside the school, whose name means “happy,” and journalists were not permitted to pass its black iron gate until last week when a reporter and a photographer were allowed inside. Authorities feared drawing attention, but the students within seemed unconcerned, often offering words of support for Malala and saying they weren’t afraid to come to school.

Even the shiest among them would whisper in a friend’s ear to say: “Tell her I will not stop studying.”Each morning the school principal gave the students a progress report on Malala’s condition.

Twelve-year-old Emar said of the Taliban: “They are thinking that she is a girl and she cannot do anything. They are thinking that only boys can do things. They are wrong. Girls can do anything.”

In a strong voice and speaking in English, Gulranga Ali, 17, said students have “gotten courage from her (Malala) and everyone is attending school. No one is staying home.” She said the attack has turned the country against extremists and “now every girl and child is saying ‘I want to be Malala.’”

Malala’s father says the family will return to Pakistan after his daughter is well enoughBut even her classmates worry for her safety.“I don’t think she will come for education anymore in Swat. She will not be safe here. Now she is a celebrity,” said Gulranga.

There is also a deepening concern that Malala’s attacker has not been arrested, that the outrage her shooting generated throughout Pakistan has subsided without substantive changes and that fear will prevent real change.

The News