Dear Malala

It was one of the most shocking moments of my life when I heard that Malala Yousuf Zai had been target shot by the Taliban. The shock was so hard because I was pro-Taliban as well as being a great admirer of Malala for the courageous way she had struggled for the continuation of her education since the tender age of eleven.

For a moment and for a few hours and for a few days I thought this is the turning point in my life where I would go from being pro-Taliban to anti-Taliban. I felt like screaming my guts out at them. What the hell have you done? How could you this? You shot a fourteen-year-old?

I crazily read the newspapers, hoping to read somewhere a denial of the responsibility of the attack, by the Taliban. I also crazily searched for Malala’s online diary, said to be written under the penname of Gul Makai on BBC Urdu. What had she written? Had she really been so anti-Taliban, anti-Mujahideen or anti-Islam that they felt it justified to kill her? Wait a minute, where was her diary?

During the search, I read the Taliban’s arguments in one of the columns. One, it is lawful to kill a female if she is committing a serious enough crime, and the reference they gave was an authentic one. Fine, I thought, otherwise all female dacoits, murderers and adulteresses would go scot-free on the grounds of being females. That is not logical. Two, it is lawful to kill a child even, if the child shows serious criminal tendencies. And the reference they gave here was an authentic one as well but, debatable for the reference was related to a prophetic decision of Surah-e-Kahf. I brain-stormed. What could a child possibly do that would justify anyone sentencing him/her to death? I thought to myself, what if a child of age fourteen starts advocating drugs and advocating it very effectively. What is the surrounding neighborhood and society supposed to do? I do not know.

I read Malala’s diary too, or some of it. Strangely, I was unable to find the root link anywhere so that I could read the whole of it. Has it been removed now? Nevertheless, I found references to her diary here and there. From what I gathered, I understand Malala to be a progressive-minded girl with appreciation and criticism for both sides of the fence, the religious and the secular. However, for a God-fearing person, religious dictates are something which should not be criticized in a fearless manner but their form of implementation may be commented upon carefully with due respect to the original commandment. For example, Malala wrote, ‘…women here wear the traditional blue burqa but I refused to wear it on the grounds that I find it difficult to walk in it…’. The words in bold…these are just the kind of words the seculars are looking for, from anyone living in a traditional-religious backdrop so that they can pounce on the story, expose it, ‘glamorize’ it, and propagate to the world how suffocating religious tradition is. Wrong. Tradition can be suffocating but religion is not. For example, religion ordains to veil but does not ordain a blue-colored, arm-less, netted-at-the-eye burqa. That is tradition. Perhaps, Malala could have wrote, ‘…I was not comfortable walking in this kind of a burqa…’. There is also the reporting that she said things like, ‘I am reminded of the Pharoah when I see the beard’ and ‘Burqa reminds me of the stone-ages’.

Then there are a few discrepancies in this whole Malala episode. Why did the Malala shooting happen just after Imran Khan’s peace march to Waziristan against drone attacks, which sparked international debates, polls and a movement against drone attacks? Is Malala really the author of her diary on BBC? Why did the Malala shooter ask prior to shooting ‘Which one of you is Malala?’? Hadn’t he done his homework of seeing Malala’s picture, available easily, prior to heading for his task? Or was the sentence part of a script? I do not think Malala veiled her face so that she could not be recognized.

To me, the Malala shooting has a strange similarity to the Swat flogging video from 2009, which surfaced suddenly and played an important role in halting the peace process and alternating the choice to a military operation in Swat. At that time, many of us were trying to question the authenticity of the video because in it the girl gets flogged and then simply walks off in a normal gait while it is said that one cannot walk straight for a while after being flogged. Of course, all the questioning was shouted out under the pretext of us being conspiracy-mongers and apologists. Today, the Malala incident is being pushed in exactly the same way, but for a military operation in North Waziristan this time.

Alternatively, sometimes it seems as if the advisor to the Taliban or someone with a strong foothold amongst them is an American agent with a deep knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah, for the Taliban sometimes do acts which are extremely harmful for the Muslim cause but they are able to justify them technically with references to the Quran and Sunnah, albeit out of time. In the current scenario, America had been pressing Pakistan hard for a couple of years to perform military operation in North Waziristan. The Malala shooting episode is just the spark America needed to justify their demand, both internationally and nationally. For today, the social media has rocketed to a fifty percent approval towards an operation in North Waziristan.

Also, there has always been this tug-of-war between displaying zealous support for one kind of cause and staying mild or mute upon another. Very few of us give a fair display. The question was on air, ‘Where are the energetic protestors for Malala from the protests of the blasphemous movie protests of just two weeks ago?’ Yes, but Tahira Abdullah, Kishwar Naheed and Attiqa Odho, where were you when America returned Aafia Siddiqui’s son, Ahmed, after keeping him in prison and chained for more than five years without any crime they could mention at all? Today, Ahmed has deformed feet bones due to being chained during his growing years. Where were you then?

To sum up my distributed and disturbed feelings, I feel that the Taliban have done a most terrible thing, if they have done it. I do not think Malala was a threat to Islam, Mujahideen or Taliban, though she might become one now in due course of events. She just wanted to really, really study, was uncomfortable with some practices in her region which were done in the name of Islam and/or culture and reportedly had the wrong attitude towards some dictates of Islam. Even if she was a rebel to Islam, which is questionable right now until her entire speeches and writings are honestly collected on some website for viewers to review, yet she should had been given the margin of her age in which teenagers form all kinds of ideas, mostly rebellious. There are many other prominent personalities of Pakistan who speak much worse. Is it then honorable to attack a vulnerable, defenceless young girl just because she was within reach? Admitted that she being a mature girl, is held Mukalaf (responsible) by Islam, but nevertheless she is very young. And Islam does give room to age factor, with reference to the Hadith which says ‘One who has reached the age of sixty has no excuse (of incomprehension of Islam) left with him’. Its counter meaning is that those below that age might be given a margin of excuse by Allah Almighty in the grave and on the Day of Judgment. Then, how should our judgments be?

And Malala’s dad, sir, were you not aware of the negative designs of the anti-Muslim lobby in the form of planted NGO’s and contorted media coverage? They never make documentaries about the plight of their thirteen-year-old single mothers, but are fast to cover heartening stories from the Muslim world and eastern culture. You should have been wary when they were approaching your daughter again and again and highlighting her plight. May Allah Almighty ease the plight and strengthen your good motives, Ameen.

Malala, I am so sorry. The Muslim nation would sky-rocket if all our youngsters had a love for education like you do. I wish you would not watch ‘Raja ki aye gi Barat’ (fake stories with zero purpose) and instead read about intelligent girls like yourself from the Muslim history, starting from Syedna Ayesha RA. I wish Sir Imran Khan would give you a scholarship into his great university. I hope you get all the education you desire and may Allah Almighty bless you with a purposeful life and a rewarding Hereafter, Ameen.