For South Asians on the “We are all Malala” bandwagon
Given such levels of violence against girls and women, it is a wonder that so many Indians can feel superior while talking about the Taliban assault in neighbouring Pakistan. It will take more to defeat the Taliban, be they of the Islamic, Hindu or any other variety.
Whether the shooting of a young person who wanted to educate herself and young girls like her in Pakistan in defiance of the Taliban’s misogyny will be a turning point in the country’s history as many South Asians and others around the world are predicting is hard to tell as of now. Freedoms and rights have to be fought for and zealously guarded. Accidental historical events rarely lead to the gaining of democracy and human rights. The right of girls and young women in Pakistan to education will have to be earned and asserted by the people of Pakistan irrespective of the fate of Malala Yousafzai and that of two other young girls who were shot with her.
That atrocity on those three children – mere teenagers – who displayed exemplary bravery in the face of a mindless fanatical attack, can prove to be a turning point only if Pakistan can stand up as one in the long run, once the emotion of the moment wanes. The death of a particularly brutal Nigerian military dictator, Sani Abacha, in 1998 seemed to have ushered in a new dawn. But Nigeria today presents a bleak picture of monumental corruption and venality. And a Jihadist organisation named Boko Haram based in the country’s north has already killed hundreds of people.
Pakistan’s own experience is another case in point. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s death in an air crash in 1988 led to the election of Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister but the powerful army continued to hold the trump card and allegations of corruption and venality saw her ousted from power. Pakistan eventually had another spell of military rule and now has Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardar as President but the army continues be a law unto itself. The people of Pakistan have their work cut out in trying to cut the army down to size and fostering democracy on the one hand and resisting the Taliban and their fellow-travellers on the other.
Other parts of South Asia would be badly mistaken in assuming that Pakistan’s fate is somehow unique in the subcontinent. Sri Lanka’s decades of civil war have taken a heavy toll of women and girls. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had trained cadres of suicide attackers – including teenage boys and girls – long before the Taliban and al-Qaida came on the scene. And the Sri Lankan army too, needless to say, has been merciless towards the Tamils. After the December 2004 Tsunami devastation, Tamils – men, women and children – were largely deprived of relief thanks to the Sri Lankan government’s spitefulness. After the brutal end – if it may be called that – to the civil war the government continues to discriminate against Tamils.
Nepal has been wracked by years of Maoist violence as well as misrule on the part of other parties and the erstwhile monarchy. Women and girls have suffered on all sides and moreover, given the country’s continuing poverty and underdevelopment, thousands of Nepali young women have been victims of trafficking to service the sex industry in Indian cities... Read more: http://www.opendemocracy.net/n-jayaram/for-south-asians-on-%E2%80%9Cwe-are-all-malala%E2%80%9D-bandwagon
