Malala addresses the UN

Alhamdulilah she is inspirational!

Comment: I was very moved but this story. Men like this should realise they cannot hold women back. Everyone has a right to realise their potential inshaAllah.

Attending the graduation ceremony of students at the prestigious University of Toronto, my daughter pointed out Samra Zafar, saying

“She topped in Economics and she is a Pakistani!” 

Samra was flanked not by parents, but two daughters, aged 12 and seven. I wanted to know more about her, and hence invited her over to our house next evening.

At home, while sipping tea, Samra shared her 14 year journey with me and I was absolutely floored by her story.

In 1999, in Abu Dhabi, Samra was a brilliant 16-years-old student of grade 11, dreaming to go to a foreign university to pursue higher studies. Her only fault was that she was tall and extremely good looking – she was a dream bride. Hence when the proposal from a ‘well settled boy in Canada’ arrived, it was difficult for her working class parents to refuse. Eldest of four daughters, the parents thought this would give her a great opportunity to go aboard and pursue her dream, under the safety of her husband and in-laws.

The in-laws reassured their support too.

However, once married and in Canada, things changed. She was told,

“The atmosphere in high schools is not good, and hence it is better to not be thankless and stay happy at home.”

Samra refused to give up though and completed her high school courses through distance learning.

Despite being a mom at the age of 18, she excelled in her high school exams and got accepted to the University of Toronto. Her husband, however, refused to support her and his good financial status left her ineligible for university loans.  She tried to convince her in laws for three years but to no avail.

It was not just her education; she was under strict vigil all the time. She was not allowed to leave the house, had no cell phone and was not allowed to learn how to drive. She never had a penny on herself and was constantly abused and neglected.

Samra had not visited her parents for five years. The first time she went back was when her father sent tickets for Samra and her daughter. When she was leaving, she asked her husband fora meagre $10 so that she could have some coffee and buy some chocolate for her daughter during their transit stop at Heathrow Airport. He just snarled at here and said,

 “Ask your father for that too.”

She had left and did not intend to come back, but her husband begged her to return with a promise that he would change and that she will be allowed to study this time; he said that he realised he could not live without her.  Reassured, Samra returned, only to know that once she got pregnant the second time, the physical abuse was to became worse.

Samra stated that,

“A bruise on my upper arm was a permanent fixture, as in every bout of anger, he would grab my arm really hard and squeeze. Often he pushed me, pulled my hair and spit in my face, even in front of my daughters.”

Again disheartened, she went back to her father’s home, pregnant with her second daughter. Within a couple of months her father suddenly fell ill and passed away. Samra recalls the day before his death and the advice her father gave her when he said,

“My life is uncertain, I may not live to look after you. You have to be strong and pull yourself out of this. I have always envisioned seeing you at the top of a world ranking University.”

Things had changed. Her mother was alone now and had two other unmarried daughters to support.

Samra, accepting it as fate, returned to her husband. To earn her own money, she began baby sitting in her house. As consolation to continue her work, she would give her husband some pocket money from which he would buy his cigarettes and a share to her mother in law, too, to earn their approval.

In 2008, she applied again and got accepted to the University of Toronto. This time she did not have to look to her husband for financial assistance, as her child care business could enable her to pay her own fees. However, this led to escalation of physical abuse. She was instructed by her husband on a daily basis,

“Don’t talk to your male professors, don’t talk to anyone on campus and don’t go to the library.”

The abuse was so severe, that she had to take a break after the first year. Several times she had suicidal thoughts and her self-confidence had completely shattered. That led her to a meeting with the Psychological Counsellor at the university campus. She attended the sessions in secrecy and there she was informed that what she was going through was a typical cycle of domestic abuse. And that it was not her fault, or her destiny to bear it.

She reveals;

“It was my daily routine to beg my husband and ask him, ‘Why do you do this? Why don’t you love me?’”

And all he replied with each time was,

“Because you deserve this.”

The psychological counselling at the university, gave her the strength to get back to university. By the second year, the abuse had become worse but she had been told that she could call 911 if need be.

“I will call the cops, if you hit me again.” She uttered once, while her husband raised his hand. That is what triggered him to say,

“Talaq, talaq, talaq.”

(I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you.)

Samra says,

“I was shattered, and I did not know what to do next. If I left the house, I would not have childcare income. How would I continue to study? I had two young girls to support.”

Samra’s husband and in-laws ran from pillar to post to get Fatwas to invalidate the divorce. Samra laughs,

 “Once my mother-in-law even brought a person for the necessary Halala to rectify the Talaq.”

However, by now Samra had, despite many weak moments, gathered enough strength to move out of this cyclical abuse and face what came her way.

She shifted to a residence at the university campus. Her husband and in-laws then tried threatening her; they said either return or they would malign her in the local Pakistani community of her ‘living’ with men at the university. Her husband often told their daughter,

“Do you think your mother goes to university to study only?”

Samra revealed that,

“After a decade of physical, financial, psychological and emotional, abuse it was only in the summer of 2011, that I finally had the courage to go to the cops and give a detailed, date by date account of the abuse I faced, along with the evidence.”

As a result, her husband was arrested on four counts of assault. Despite two court cases, three jobs and two children, she continued to excel in her studies and became head teaching assistant.

Today, Monday June 10, 2013, at the official convocation of the prestigious University of Toronto, Samra will not only be awarded a Bachelors degree in Economics, but she will also be awarded the prestigious Top Student Award in Economics. She also has to her credit a dozen more awards given to her for her academic excellence in the past four years, including the  prestigious John H Moss Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a single student in the entire university (all three campuses). She has also been admitted to the PhD program in Economics at the University of Toronto, with afull scholarship.

When not studying or working, Samra loves cooking for her girls and gives them all the free time she gets.

“We are now the happiest we have ever been.”

I asked her how she would advise other girls who are trapped in the same scenario and to that she said,

 “Do not let anyone disrespect you. Believe in yourself. You are the only one who can change your situation. It is not easy, but it isn’t impossible either. I had all the disadvantages any girl could have.”

She refers to the myth of needing a man as a support,

“I have no father, brother, son, or husband to support me. But I have done it, all by myself. If I can do it, anyone can.”

Source

Fatima Al-Fihri – Founder of the Oldest University in the World

 Excellent Blog post from 'the urban Muslim Women' :

It was a clear sunny day when a noble family journeyed from Kairouan, Tunisia to Fes in Morocco. It was in the early ninth century and many families chose to migrate to the bustling city in the west. For Mohammed Al-Fihri, a wealthy merchant from Tunisia, Fes was excellent avenue for him to continue the family business.

Both his daughters, Fatima and Mariam were well educated. After inheriting a large amount of money from their father, the girls vowed to spend their entire inheritance for the benefit of their community. Whilst Mariam headed the contstruction of the grand mosque Al-Andalus, Fatima planned on the building of another mosque called Al Karaouine which was said to be the largest in North Africa. It was in the midst of the construction of the mosque that the University of Al-Karaouine ( which is still part of the mosque today) was set up.

The University of Al-Karaouine was highly regarded back then as one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world. Today, the Guinness Book of World Records has recognised it to be the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning in the world.

Fatima Al-Fihri was certainly a lady of foresightedness for the location of the university within the compounds of the mosque attracted scholars from far and wide. Fes, being the most influential cities in the Muslim world has been renowned for centuries as the centre for religion and culture. The university produced great thinkers such as Abu Al-Abbas al-Zwawi, Abu Madhab Al-Fasi, a leading theorist of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence and Leo Africanus, a renowed traveler and writer.
That was not all, the unviersity played a leading role in cultural and academic relations between the Islamic world and Europe. A renowned Jewish philosopher and theologian Maimonides (Ibn Maimun) studied under Abdul Arab Ibn Muwashah. Apart from that, Ibn al-Arabi Ibn Khaldun and Al-Bitruji (Alpetragius) were all connected with the university either as academicians or as students.

As time went by, the university gained the patronage of politically powerful sultans. It compiled a large selection of manuscripts that are currently kept guarded in the library. Among those manuscripts are volumes from the famous Al-Muwatta of Malik written on gazelle parchment, the Sirat Ibn Ishaq, a copy of the Qur’an given to the university by Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in 1602, and the original copy of Ibn Khaldun’s book Al-’Ibar.

Alongside the Qur’an and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), other subjects that were also taught were grammar, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, history, geography and music. Gradually, a broader range of subjects were introduced in the university particularly natural sciences, physics and foreign languages.

Today, Fatima Al-Fihri is highly respected and looked upon by Moroccan women for her wisdom, perserverances and kind heartedness. It was her personal sacrifice that has made her to be an inspiration to all women. Even today, young Moroccan ladies speak greatly of their foremother who not only brought fame to Fes but has carved a name for being the only Muslimah who has built the oldest university which is still running today.

The Qur’an and the Hadith (teachings of the Prophet) inspires every man and woman to seek knowledge. This unique story of Fatima Al- Fihri has shed some light on the role and contribution of Muslim women to Islamic civilisation- It is this role which will hopefully denounce the narrow-mindedness of the western mind of Muslim women. Fatima has shown to us that even in the early centuries that women who are shrouded with the veil are just as willfull and intelligent as those of us today.

Source

Stories about Headscarf worn by Muslim women (Hijab)

Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (2004)

f.a.y.z.a

Fayza, 25, is a university student from Yemen. She was forced to drop out of school when she was made to marry at the age of eight. That marriage ended in divorce a year later. At 14, she became the third wife of a 60-year-old man. After bearing three children, she divorced again at the age of 18. Fayza is now only allowed to see her children every other weekend. Her older sister persuaded her to finish her education, arguing that this would be her only way to improve her life. Despite her poverty, her lowly social status as a divorced woman in an ultra-conservative society, and her parents’ opposition to her plans to go back to school, Fayza is now in her first year of business studies at university (with a help from a grant from an NGO called YERO). For her, education is not the goal, but simply a means to achieve her goals. Her dream is to get a decent job and have the financial stability to give her children a better life.
Source

The Arqam Effect

Those familiar with the biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him)  are versant with the story of a young man named Arqam. Arqam played an instrumental role in the unfolding of the history of the Arabian Peninsula. Despite his key role in history, he is noted in the books of Prophetic biography to be a discreet person in Meccan society. In contemporary Western terms Arqam functioned as a:

1. self-less philanthropist furthering the cause of a brotherly society
2. non-profit organization working for the betterment of society

Upon a close read of the biography of the Prophet ﷺ  we learn that Arqam’s role in history was more than non-profits and philanthropists. Arqam’s decision functioned as an institution devoid of bureaucracy in impact and its effect was so profound that it moved the direction of history. The educational space in Arqam’s home communicated a qualitative education so profound and thorough that it affected personal, intellectual and historical change. It was so transformative an experience that the whole of the Arabian Peninsula was reshaped. A disruption of the old psychological order was brought about by transforming the attitude, thinking, and practices of the students of the Qur’an.

One of the fundamental verses that promoted such a transformation based on a wholesome understanding of community life was revealed in Madina and is found in the Chapter of the Qur’an entitled Ma’ida. It reads as follows:

“And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty.” (5:2)

Imam al-Qurtubi al-Maliki, commenting on this verse, said: “It is a command for all the creation to assist one another in (taqwa) righteousness and (birr) piety, which means they must help one another.” 

Imam al-Mawardi ash-Shafi said: “Allah (exalted is He) has called on people to help one another and married cooperation to righteousness and piety.” He further stated that“in righteousness there is Allah’s pleasure and in piety is the pleasure of the people and he who has gained Allah’s pleasure and that of people is happy and fully blessed.”

Imam Ibn Atiya al-Maliki said: “Piety is engaging that which is obligated and recommended of action whereas righteousness is restricted to performing obligations.”

The term piety in the sense found in the Qur’an, in this verse, transcends the basic command to righteousness or God-consciousness. This is so because piety enjoins doing more than what is commanded of goodness and staying away from what is ugly and prohibited (haram) – this is God-consciousness (taqwa). Rather, the commitment to piety is more than just personal spiritual development as it unfolds in doing what is obligated and staying away from the prohibited; it demands doing acts of goodness which are not obligated. Piety (birr) adds great value to society because it carries the human being to a standard of excellence that is not a matter of keeping to the do’s and don’ts of Islam. God-consciousness is a fundamental level of spiritual maturity, but piety is a call to grow beyond the basics of fearing for one’s well being and desiring what is best. For this reason the commitment to piety has a social component

The group studying at the home of Arqam did not secretly meet to plan a violent overthrow of the system, nor did they study a manifesto that would teach them a program to enshrine their newly founded party. The environment in this period of Islamic history was very hostile to women, the weak, the stranger, and the poor. The strong man governed and the sword was always near. It was far from the state of nature that honored the human being and far from the rule of law—rather, it was the law of barbarism and ignorance celebrated through poetry and occasional hospitality. Despite this social fact and environmental challenge the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ  did not falter. It was in the abode of Arqam that the early Muslims found a safe house to imbibe the teachings of the Qur’an and the character necessary to transform society from the core. If it was power they were after, they had a chance to march into Mecca and conquer it after they achieved independence in Madina. If it was wealth they aimed at, they had the ability to plunder to their delight. What they were after was a life worth living.

Rather what they learned at Arqam’s home was an institution of education that taught that the poor, the rich, the stranger, the woman and the non-Muslim all had inherent rights that are God-given and that faith and reason are not to fall prey to superstition. The Arqam effect was so profound in impact that individuals who graduated from the institution were later key individuals who served to construct the society of Madina. Madina, as many of us know, was the first State in the world to be founded on a constitution. They became corner stones to society and its major benefactors. The lesson of the Qur’an they imbibed was that to build society is an obligation and to uphold justice and law is crucial to society’s survival. The education they received was a Qur’anic education and, further, a human education.

Fetullah Gulen states: “A system of education without a clearly defined target and purpose will only serve to confuse future generations. We have to be careful that our youth is taught the proper material in an effective manner to ensure that they are actually learning rather than simply becoming conduits of data.”¹  Arqam, as a youth, learned more than just the fundamentals for a successful career. He learned how to be a functional part of society, how to care for society, and how to build society.

Lessons on citizenship are not enough to bring about a just social life. An understanding of Islam bent on attaining power to wield it like a sword will not bring about a just social order. A life devoted to spiritual practices and neglect of the material world is not enough to bring about a change in the madness of the world. A booming economic upturn is also not enough.

What is needed is a transformation of perspective, a cultivation of will, a suppression of ego, and a deep commitment to the teachings of the Qur’an. The students of the school of Arqam eventually moved on to graduate. When they graduated, they renewed society, for it was through the patient suffering in Mecca and the studious effort to understand the Qur’an. While the world was in chaos, they eventually developed the qualities necessary to build Madinan society and then return to build Mecca. Study of the Qur’an must be accompanied by a spirit searching for solutions for humanity’s spiritual and intellectual ailments as well as its social ills. Change is not only personal, but it is in light of social transformation. What do we need to change in ourselves to make society better? That question is the question we must ask when we read the Qur’an.

Source

Witness - Shabeena's Quest

Prof. Tariq Ramadan: IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS, BLASPHEMY AND CAN TONY BLAIR SAVE THE MIDDLE EAST?

What is the correct response to the protesters who have responded violently to the film that insults Mohamed? 

The protesters fell into the exact trap set by those who launched it. The Salafi literalists tried to mobilise the people against “The United States” by promoting a type of religious populism based upon a simplistic and dangerous generalisation: Americans hate us and we are better Muslims when we reject them. The best response would have been to ignore the video and to unite with all the people (Muslims and people of other religions or with no religion) who want to protect freedom of speech while asking individuals to use this right in a decent, respectful and reasonable way.

Is The Satanic Verses a blasphemous work?

If you assess it from within the religious framework, it can be considered as blasphemous. Yet it is not as simple as that for two reasons: the author no longer considers himself as a Muslim and he wrote a novel. Taking into account that he is speaking from outside the Islamic religious reference (as a non-believer) and that it is fiction, it can be argued that this qualification is questionable. In any case, as I wrote in 1989 when the controversy started, this fatwa was more political than religious and wrong and unacceptable in substance.

Should Western nations prosecute blasphemy against religion?

I do not think that prosecuting blasphemy will change anything. The current legal framework is enough and we need to protect our rights, freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. Upstream from these rights, we need to educate people to learn how to nurture an ethical behaviour while they enjoy freedom. Just because something is legal does not necessarily mean that it is always good: you can ridicule the suffering of somebody (that is legal) but it is not really ethical. The same goes for a sense of humour: if you make a joke and you are the only one to laugh, it is no longer a joke. Only education can help us to manage pluralism positively.

How do you view the prominence of right-wing Christianity within the US Republican movement?

The right-wing American or European Christians should be considered for what they are: populists and racists with very dogmatic and dangerous minds. Just as the salafi literalists do not represent all the Muslims, the populist right-wing Christians do not represent Christianity. They distort the Christian message and build their rhetoric on the same simplistic polarisation “us versus them”. The Muslims are the new enemies, “the cancer”, and even if American, they are considered as foreigners or outsider insiders. They are a danger not only to Muslims but to all of us.

Is Tony Blair more part of the Middle East problem than the Middle East solution?

He cannot be part of the solution in the Middle East for three reasons. The first is historical, given the involvement of Britain in the colonisation and the problems generated by this. The second relates to the unilateral support Britain has always given to Israel (and not to the Arabs). The third and most important is his own record: following in the footsteps of George W Bush, he accepted the lies related to the WMD in Iraq and launched a dirty war. Who can still trust him among the Arabs – and the British citizens?

Is an Iranian nuclear weapons capability something to be deplored or tolerated?

No, they cannot be tolerated just as nuclear weapons anywhere cannot be tolerated. What we do not want for Iran should not be tolerated for Israel. We are told that Israel can have nuclear weapons because they are less dangerous for regional peace than if Iran has them. That is very disputable. A survey a few years ago showed that the majority of Europeans thought Israel was the most dangerous country for peace. Let us be consistent and demand all the countries, without exception, get rid of such weapons.

Source

Fearing the ‘weak’

This is the woman whom you have been trying to keep hidden behind seven veils. You glance at her just once and you are “seduced” by her and start reciting couplets; the mere sight of a woman is enough to endanger your faith. You avert your gaze and start babbling incoherently. You think she is the weak one here, the softer, fairer sex but not once do you spare a thought for your own weakness. You hide your own fear by forcing her to fear you.

You have invented numerous excuses to hide your fear of women. Sometimes, it is ghairat, sometimes rituals and traditions. Sometimes, you even erect a wall of religion as an excuse to hide your own insecurities. If these excuses don’t work, then you use niqab, chador, bangles and jewellery but never will you try to perceive women on an equal level. All you see of us is our body; you only look at us through circles, circles that have trapped you. How can you see anyone’s soul, when you yourself don’t have one?

I am a mother, a daughter, a sister and a wife; you and I are bound in so many ways. You are always ready to make me your lover but always refuse to give me the status of a friend. Whenever the question of equality comes up, you back off. You go and make friends outside the home but I, who am your home, must only be expected to look after a house. I wait for your return, cook your meals, look after your children but I know, I can never be your friend.

What does it matter if you allowed me to go and work to help you with the household expenses? I still have no right over my own income. Whether I work outside of home or within it, the power of making a decision remains in your hands. All working women set about to earn a living from early morning to late night, without a break. The housework that they do isn’t accounted for in any manner. The women who work outside the home, at a big post or small, clerk or officer, may be even head of their department, return home at the end of the day to obey you, the head of the house.

What does it matter if you educate your daughter in one of the elite schools in the city or send her abroad to obtain a degree from a foreign university? She must still marry according to your wishes. Not marry someone who matches her mentality, her intellect but someone who you might not even like but just as long as he comes from an affluent family, and has a high status in our society. A potential groom for your daughter must not have a status lower than your own, and must match you in terms of respect too. At least, he will give your daughter all the comfort and luxury of life, even if he cannot provide your daughter with happiness.

You insist on alone having the right to think because you think I do not possess the ability to think for myself or for our home. If I do make the mistake of doing either of the two, you will call in the jirgas,panchayats to judge me in. Even the neighbours hold the right to pass judgments on me.

What does a woman have to do with education? These schools are just there to teach “immoral activities” and are a Western conspiracy against us. A woman’s place is at home. Even if we provide her with the best education, she will eventually end up looking after the house anyway. There are such parents who provide their daughter with a professional degree thinking that will get her an equally or more educated husband and that she will live a prosperous life. They don’t think once about the fact that her professional degree would be wasted as she spends the rest of her life bringing up children, and attempting to please her husband.

It never matters how much fame a woman earns because of her talents, no matter how successful she is, no matter how high a post she achieves in her career. All of it can be destroyed in a single moment by a single allegation on her character. It can compel her to stay home. You, however, may have hundreds and thousands of charges against you but the society is still going to meet you, bowing in respect. The fact that you have charges against you will only serve to increase your prestige. Not to mention, how you use those charges against you to get political leverage. It just keeps getting easier for you, doesn’t it?

How can the laws for women be passed when the lawmakers themselves don’t agree with them?  Numerous bills for women keep getting submitted but all of them end up pending. But if there is a law that ensures that your system of give and take flows as smoothly as ever, then that law will be passed immediately. Even our female prime minister could not change the laws against women. Now the country is ruled by men anyway.

Women can continue to protest in the national and provincial assemblies but the majority is yours, isn’t it? Women hired by political parties are either just there for show or they have been hired to further hire herds of women for their party’s rallies just to take photographs. Someone should ask that leader, the self-proclaimed champion of women’s rights, how many women does he allow to sit with him during important decision-making meetings for the party.

You have released an army of sons who roam the streets and neighbourhoods, waving weapons and sticks, wreaking havoc in the city. But it is your daughters who continue to maintain the peace in your home; the same daughters who are also working in offices simultaneously. They are ahead of your sons in education. They are well-versed with the modern world and also have been gifted with the ability to think by God. You can do whatever you want to keep us away from schools, enshroud us in hijabs and niqabs, pollute our thinking with obsolete ideas but you cannot prevent the light of the new age from reaching us.

This net that you have sewn from the threads of ghairat and religion, you use it to trap me like a fish. It cannot prevent the infiltration of thinking, understanding and believing. Don’t forget that every home has a mother, a mother who wants to see her daughter educated.

Have you ever been to a university? You will see women everywhere on the campus. Seventy to 80 per cent of the women are studying and are at the forefront in every competition. Forget the big universities in the big cities. Why don’t you take a walk around the Gujrat University campus, notice how the daughters come from far-away villages, changing various buses to reach the university everyday. Your offices cannot function without a woman anymore. That is because she alone knows how to work hard with affability. She has no interest at all in all the fighting and riots.

Best you teach your sons to respect their sisters, and educate them. If you don’t, the rising demographic ratio is going produce educated daughters with no sons to match them. Educate them so they are not pitted against each other; one putting your house on fire, the other dousing it.  Source

Get well soon Malala!

Everyone please pray for Malala, she is a true heroine of our times.

 "If you educate a man, you educate one person. If you educate a woman, you educate and liberate a whole nation." Malcolm X. 

Sabbiyah Pervez is a voice from Bradford on the shooting of a brave young woman.

Education is a privilege that we take for granted here in the UK. We take for granted that it is compulsory and we take for granted that up until the age of 18 it is free. We take for granted the fact that we do not have to fight for our education, we do not have to struggle for it and most importantly we do not have to risk our lives for it. But there are many for whom such struggles are a constant reality. Many like Malala Yousafzai, who have that privilege stolen from them and for whom education is deemed unnecessary.

The issue regarding women being educated is one that has been prevalent throughout the ages, stemming largely from the belief that by educating a woman you are doing more harm then good, a view that still exists in fragments today within our own society. Many women will tell you that men feel intimidated by their knowledge or expertise in a certain field, indicating that the archaic view of the man being the dominant leader and omniscient, is still apparent within us.

I recall my grandmother narrating to us, that her eldest brother pulled her out of school when she hit puberty; she stated that he was concerned that if she continued to be educated she would not marry the man who was betrothed to her. My grandfather is significantly older then my grandmother and was a divorcee. When asked how she felt about her brothers decision, my grandmother replied she was furious but later saw the wisdom of his decision; she would definitely have not married my grandfather if she had continued her education.

As a young third generation British Asian girl growing up in Bradford, I encountered this backward mentality directed to my parents from some within my own community. Many stated that I did not need to be educated. Instead I should be educated to the bare minimum and be married off at an early age in order to remove myself as a burden from my parents. Others argued that if I was educated "too much" I would become difficult to control and education would grant me "too much" freedom, it would be hard then for me to conform to the expectations many had set for me. Fortunately I can tell you they were right. My education educated and liberated me, it allowed me to critically analyse the problems that i saw around me and to openly question and challenge them. My questions brought discomfort and I was regularly cautioned by elder members of my community for asking "too many questions." Unfortunately, I know of many girls here in the UK, who are pulled out of school because education is seen as a threat to what their elders expect of them.

So in a sense I can understand why the Taliban banned the education of girls when they took over the Swat Valley. They, like my great uncle and many others in Pakistan, felt threatened by the effect of educating a girl. You see Malcolm X pretty much has summed it up for us. When you educate a woman, you don't just educate her, you liberate her. You allow her to travel on a path of self-discovery and you enable her to question her position in society. You empower her by giving her knowledge of what she can become. And this is dangerous. It is dangerous to the Taliban because it means that they will not be able to impose their patriarchal laws upon liberated women, it means that if they do they will be presented with a challenge and a force greater then them. And their rule will be effectively be diminished. It was a threat and a risk they couldn't take.

So for those asking what Malala Yousafzai has done to the Taliban, this is exactly what she has done. At the tender age of 11, Malala started writing in order to articulate her hopes and fears under a false name. When her cover was blown and she was threatened by the Taliban and its sympathizers, she did not cease her writing. In contrast she went public, so that by the age of 14 she was a name and a force to be reckoned with. You see by educating Malala, her parents had given her her greatest gift. They had enabled her to understand her potential and to recognise that her writing was a tool, it was the sword of opposition to the men who had taken away her privilege of studying. It was her opportunity to stick her middle finger up in defiance and to seek vengeance and boy, did she strike fear in their hearts! Malala Yousafzai was a threat because her defiance was an inspiration to others, others who lacked her bravery and her strength of character and determination. It was an act of defiance that could ignite a movement of opposition, an opposition the Taliban desperately wanted to quash, threaten and intimidate.

Their motive behind shooting Malala is a simple one: shoot the leader and you scare the followers. To them it is a message of force, but in reality it is an act of cowardice. It is an act which demonstrates how pig-headed the Taliban really are. It demonstrates their weakness and fragility. So weak that a young girl armed with her writing can be seen as a great threat, a threat so damaging to them that even after shooting her they state that if she does not die they will strike once more. It is this latter thought that makes them real fools. By believing that they have eliminated a threat by shooting Malala, or even, God forbid ,by killing her, they are seriously deluded. This act will inspire many more like Malala, frustrated with the oppression of women that they encounter daily, frustrated with their lack of human rights and frustrated by their governments inability to protect them.

They will rise out of their slumber with a sense of empowerment and purpose to set a precedent for future generations, and I pray to God that when they do, Malala is there to lead them once again.