Malala Yousafzai |
Malala—
the way forward’s
always first
into darkness,
then through it—
the light you carry,
that old-soul courage—
millions will follow
********
At the age of 11, Malala Yousafzai took on the Taliban by giving voice to her dreams. As turbaned fighters swept through her town in northwestern Pakistan in 2009, the tiny schoolgirl spoke out about her passion for education — she wanted to become a doctor, she said — and became a symbol of defiance against Taliban subjugation.
On Tuesday, masked Taliban gunmen answered Ms. Yousafzai’s courage with bullets, singling out the 14-year-old on a bus filled with terrified schoolchildren, then shooting her in the head and neck. Two other girls were also wounded in the attack. All three survived, but late on Tuesday doctors said that Ms. Yousafzai was in critical condition at a hospital in Peshawar, with a bullet possibly lodged close to her brain.
A Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, confirmed by phone that Ms. Yousafzai had been the target, calling her crusade for education rights an “obscenity.”
More here.
And another poetic response to the attempt on Malala’s life by Conrad DiDiodato here. It was Conrad’s lead I followed in beginning with Malala’s name. Perhaps we need a worldwide garland of poems beginning with “Malala…”
Joseph,<br /><br />I believe Yousafzai and Bouazizi (and others, mostly from the Middle East and Asia) are the new 'avantgarde', a term I'm purposely wresting from the hands of indolent self-serving academic poseurs…<br /><br />Children and fruit vendors who are mercilessly victimized are the ones looking ahead to a new world<br /><br />
Your lines, Conrad, inspired me to respond in verse—something I seldom do to such tragedies. (I linked to your poem in my post.) Malala's situation reminds me of Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation sparked the Arab Spring. We need a Women's Spring, worldwide—and Malala's example may inspire it. Of course, this brutal attack is an expression of the Fundamentalist mindset, which all
Let's start here, Joseph<br /><br />Malala–<br /> walking arm in arm,<br /> deep stairway<br />