Who is Malala Yousafzai?
Well, the world knows of her. She was threatened by the terrorists for going to the school. They had told her that they will kill her if she would want to be educated. And finally shot her. While going to school one day, she was shot several times by a few terrorists. She fought for her life and survived the attack.
Now, the question is – how is her case different from many other girls who had to deal with the same kind of situation. There were many girls and women who have raised their voice in favor of girl education and have fought for it. Many of them may have been shot and many of them may have died too. But those who survived, we don’t know their names. We don’t know what happened to them afterwards. We don’t know if they got proper medical treatment. We don’t know if they were again shot by the terrorists. We don’t know a lot about them because their stories were not covered by the media. Yes.. and we may never learn about them as well…
Malala, on the other hand was covered by the media on a large scale. There is no doubt that she had the strength to keep fighting even after being shot and not being scared for her life. She just wanted to go ahead for the cause she believed in and she didn’t stop. But, she was also privileged to get the media coverage all over the world and hence she got the best of medical treatment and was saved. I think, that apart from being brave and persistent, she was also really lucky to have the world’s support. She is an inspirational figure today and has now reached a level that only seem to be a dream to millions of other girls like her.
So now, who is Malala?
I guess the one who was brave, who didn’t get scared, kept fighting AND the one who was extremely lucky to have THE MEDIA COVERAGE.
Thoughts?
mySestina