I often find myself upset with the personal injustices I suffer. I’m annoyed at my parents for going easier on my little brother. I’m irked by my teacher who calls me out for talking in class, when I’m only explaining the material to a confused classmate. I hate coming home to an empty refrigerator.
So imagining a life where I have to fight every day and face possible death just to earn a fundamental right like education is nearly impossible. While this sounds like a nightmare to me, it is the real, waking world of Malala Yousafzai.
At just 11 years old she publicly denounced the Taliban’s authority and argued that girls should be guaranteed the right to education. Then later that year, she began a blog on the BBC Urdu website, discussing the fear girls like her felt when they attended school, driving many to stay home and remain uneducated. She wrote under a pseudonym, still a risky and eventually grave endeavor.
After continuing her activism and receiving national, and even some international, attention Malala was shot in the head by a member of the Taliban on her way to school on Oct. 9, 2012. Following the shooting, Malala was thrust into the spotlight, revered as an international icon of resilience and equality. She gave a speech at the United Nations on a day named by the group ‘Malala Day’ and eventually released a book entitled I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. Later in 2014 she was named The Nobel Peace Prize Winner, making her the youngest ever recipient of any Nobel Prize.
To meet Malala would be to meet passion, empathy, and strength. A mere 18-year-old, Malala has already done so much to improve not only the quality of her own life, but also the quality of thousands of other young people’s lives. While I pout about school dress codes, Malala battles school gender codes. While I complained about my scoliosis, Malala battled a gunshot to the head. While I deal with schoolyard bullies, Malala battles death threats from the Taliban.
If I could talk with her I would ask her how she finds her tenacity. I would ask her how she decides to be positive and enduring in her quest for equality. I would ask her how she overcomes every obstacle with a grin and humility. Most importantly, I would ask, with all the evil that seemingly threatens to engulf her every day, how she focuses on all the good.
With Western society’s focus on the individual, it is so easy to get caught up in yourself. I know I am guilty of this. But every time I get upset because I ruin my favorite shirt when I get some punch on it or it starts raining and I don’t have an umbrella, I try to think of Malala. People like Malala don’t get disappointed when it rains. They see all the flowers that might grow because of it, and if it doesn’t rain, they grab a pail.
