Day 283: Malala Yousufzai

Considering that I've never met Malala Yousufzai, she's been on my mind a lot today. I guess that would be otherwise surprising, being that she lives half a world away in Pakistan and that she's just 14 years old. But after reading the details this morning about how a cowardly, grown man blatantly and unflinchingly walked up to her in broad daylight and proceeded to put a bullet through her neck, I guess it's not all that surprising after all.

I guess it's not all that surprising either to be deeply affected and moved, including to tears. When a grown man approaches a girl, waiting to get on a school bus no less, and puts the barrel to her flesh and pulls the trigger, it's not that shocking that people would be taken for a loss. Outraged. Devastated. Incensed. Saddened. Lost. Dejected. Speechless. 

So, I guess despite having only crossed paths with Malala Yousufzai on this very day and only through news reports, it's not that surprising that I'm utterly inspired. That I've thought about her often today. That I've contemplated my own courage. What I'm willing to fight for. What I'm willing to not back down from. What I'm willing to die for.  

I have the greatest admiration and respect for anyone who exhibits bravery, particularly when doing so means your outcome isn't guaranteed, when it exceeds the norm. It's admirable when someone, say, faces down a life-threatening disease, but it's entirely different when someone takes on the welfare for an entire gender, for fellow citizens, for humanity to a great extent, knowing that doing so means staring down an uncompromising violent force that will not hesitate to end you. To snuff you out as if you never existed in the first place. 

Malala Yousufzai has done more in 14 years than I could contemplate doing in my lifetime. 14 years old. Just think about that. 14. Not 40. Not 60. Not an age that carries decades of experience and acquired wisdom. 14. Still a kid. Amazing.

Moreover, she's a girl in a in a land where being a female certainly is nothing like being a female in the United States or other countries. A land where a group like the Taliban has a definite idea about a women should and should not be. To disagree with such notions and show such unbridled courage and tenacity to speak out against that dominating voice as a 14-year-old girl, well, that's impossible to ignore or impossible not to pay due respect. And she's been living her beliefs for years, as this passage from the Associated Press indicates:

 

"At the age of 11, she began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC about life under the Taliban in the Swat Valley. After the military ousted the militants in 2009, she began publicly speaking out about the need for girls' education, something the Taliban strongly opposes."

I wish I would have crossed paths with Malala Yousufzai before today. Despite the timing, however, she's left a deep, lasting impression. I only hope I can live up to her amazing example.