Written by Russel Johnsen   

Malala - The Story of a Great Girl



Malala, who spoke upon her 16th birthday in front of the United Nations in promotion of schooling for all was born in Pakistan and lived in the beautiful Swat Valley of north western Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan.



In 2009, at the age of 11 she began writing a diary for the BBC about life under the influx of the Taliban from Afghanistan because of the invasion of the USA and the friends of the USA. She began blogging for the BBC under the pen name Gul Makai. To do otherwise would have meant death.



The Pakistani Taliban are a direct result of the wars upon Afghanistan where the Taliban came to power after the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets in 1980. This war was actually initiated by President Carter of the USA and his adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in a very course way of trying to give the Soviets "their own Vietnam". (A quote of Zbigniew Brzezinski)



The war also included the creation of al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden who was told that the CIA would guide them to route the Soviets and to save Afghanistan. Actually though the opposite was the truth and al Qaeda was led by the CIA to extend the war. Osama bin Laden was most horribly tricked.



To make this short the Taliban (Sunnis) came to power in Afghanistan and their power crossed the Pakistan border into the Swat Valley; the home of Malala, her family and her friends. The Taliban extremists harassed the border regions of Pakistan and they blew up hundreds of schools created by Pakistan to teach Pakistani girls and boys; the schools were segregated as is common in the Moslem religion and is still common in many Catholic schools in the West.



When Malala was 14 the Taliban had caught on to her writing and her outspokenness against the pursuit of the Taliban to make certain that girls were banned from getting a school education. This in not a Moslem tradition but a hardline tradition of the hard-liners and their interpretation of the words of the Koran. So let's remember that women in Pakistan have the right to an education and the government supplies schools when it can. Pakistan is not a rich country and is even more taxed for money as it tries to fight back the Taliban coming across the border from the war torn Afghanistan.



Claims have been made that the Taliban in Pakistan are not the Taliban from Afghanistan. However, the flood of people exiting the invasion of the USA/West are most certainly Taliban and they are trying to spread the strict Sunni religion much as it is in Saudi Arabia. Sharia Law at its most strict.



During the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets in the 1980s there was a lot of crossing, back and forth, between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is naturally so as this is where the USA created al Qaeda was based. Pakistan was used by the USA to back the al Qaeda movement (to trick them) in the contrived Soviet invasion.



Al Qaeda was heavily Sunni as was the leader Osama bin Laden. This created a resurgence of Sunnis in Pakistan`s border regions. Regions now fraught with fear of Obama`s Drones that mostly kill civilians in these regions.



So this is the complexity in which Malala grew up in a family highly politicized in the need for education for all including all girls and women.

It`s interesting to note that Malala`s principal advised the girls to not wear their uniforms when coming to class anymore as the Taliban were against this. So Malala decided to wear her favourite pink dress. I assume her choice in front of the UN is symbolic to her choice on that particular day.

At assembly they were advised to not wear their colourful clothes either!

This reminds me of the church in Scotland banning dancing which led to their dancing tradition of mostly using their feet so that the church observers would not see them actually dancing when they looked through their windows. Religion sure can be twisted by those that wish it.

In 2011 Malala began to become more and more in the spotlight even more than the times she was televised speaking out about girls`education. She was nominated in 2011 for the International Children`s Peace prize by the KidsRights Foundation. And then won the National Peace Award now re-named the National Malala Peace Prize for those under 18 years old.

According to Feryal Gauhar, a writer for the local Express Tribune, "Malala was the lone voice in that wilderness."

Sad to say that Malala had to stand alone in the limelight as the fear was so strong that her friends and backers were afraid to speak out. Too often this is the way. And too often the ending is tragic as Malala's almost was. It's hard to say what would happen to her movement for the education of women in these areas and in our world if Malala had not survived her most dangerous injuries.

Malala was lucky to survive. We are all lucky she survived if we can translate her efforts into peaceful resolutions of conflict rather than going to war and creating situations such as the ones that exist still in the Swat Valley of today. A Swat Valley of great beauty being crushed by aspects of both religion at its worst and war that need not have happened.

I've mention extremists in this little write up about Malala. But I do not only note the extremists of the hardline Sunni Taliban religion. I do note the USA, in particular in its extremist manner of ignoring the gouging hatreds created by war.

I blame President Carter and his adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski most expressly in the madness of putting all these people at risk for their insipid political games that have killed so many and have ruined so many lives. They both ought to be in prison for these crimes against humanity.

I blame the Soviets for their invasion of Afghanistan to kill in order to 'protect' themselves from the activities of the USA.

I blame all the subsequent governments of the USA backing these terrors across our world and their continued concentration of creating war everywhere.

I blame Prime Minister Chretien of Canada for getting Canada involved in the Invasion of Afghanistan. I blame Harper for continuing the absurdities of war just because we are allies. Harper, for Canada, is the worst of the worst in warmongering to date in Canada.

I give thanks that Malala and her family have survived and continue to focus upon the rights for all women in our world to get the best education possible and to be able to strive for the stars; to strive for a good humanity that is still very much lacking in all our world.

Thank you, Malala for helping to show the way. Now will people understand? That is the lingering question.

Russ Johnsen
Winnipeg, Manitoba