‘I am Malala’ was a nice read. I liked the part of the book where I got to learn a lot about history of Pakistan and Swat region to be specific. The history of Islamization of Swat was a bit painful for me.
“FIRST THE TALIBAN took our music, then our Buddhas, then our history.”
It seemed like Taliban (meaning religious students!) did same in Swat what ISIS did or are doing in Syria. The only difference is that what happened in Swat is buried under the history and acts of ISIS are known to all. Actually this destruction started long ago in Mecca where statues of more than 350 gods were destroyed to establish one religion and the idea of one god. Many Indians blamed that Pakistani government is behind Taliban and this time it came from a Pakistani.
Money that came to Pakistan in the name of ‘War against terrorism’ cost Pakistanis a lot. Only some high class official became rich and the rest had to take drone attack and every bad thing they could imagine. This gave me reason why they say ‘there are no free lunch’ and made me suspicious about foreign grants our country receives.
I felt sad when I read the condition of women in Pakistan.
“she had been living in the seaside city of Karachi for thirty years and yet had never actually laid eyes on the ocean. Her husband would not take her to the beach, and even if she had somehow slipped out of the house, she would not have been able to follow the signs to the sea because she could not read.”
It seemed like they had no life of their own.
When I was reading the book, I was comparing everything with situation in Nepal. The corruption seemed to be a common thing in both the countries. We had no Talibs but we too suffered a lot from Maoist movement. We didn’t destroy anyone’s religion but our superstition somehow pulled us backward all the time. Caste-system, gender discrimination, prohibiting women in family activities during her menstrual cycle, Kumari tradition, etc are the few of many bad traditions in our society. Education for women is not as difficult (at least these days) in our country as it seemed to be in Pakistan. I wish that our daughter, sisters and mothers would learn about Malala and fight for positive change in society just like her.