Conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, etc…many civilian (including kids) are being deprived of their rights and lives. And I share this feeling with the majority of the people in the world: “Please stop it!”
This was further strengthened by reading a book about the right of education “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” (Malala Yousafzai, 2013).

Even though I wrote several times about her on my previous entries, this book gave me more insights on how and why she became such an international icon on girl’s education (in other words, I didn’t know the detail). Through this work, I also learned a little bit about the Islamic values which has something to do with many conflicts occurring over time.

I would point out some of important facts that made her educational activists along with relevant quotes from the book:

–Malala’s father created a school from the scratch and he never gave up on speaking out the importance of education for everyone.

“I agree that female teachers should educate girls,” he said. “But first we need to educate our girls so they can become teachers! (Malala’s father)”

–Malala’s mother, although she wasn’t involved in education as much as her husband, she was the one who taught Malala the importance of “giving” without expecting any return.

We knew what it was like to be hungry, so my mother always cooked extra and gave food to poor families. If there was any left she fed it to the birds.

–Religious idea mistakenly created Taliban―the terrorist group which criticized the westernized school system and banned girls from going to school, even though Islamic value encourages people to be educated.

Today we all know education is our basic right. Not just in the West; Islam too has given us this right. Islam says every girl and every boy should go to school. In the Quran it is written, God wants us to have knowledge. He wants us to know why the sky is blue and about oceans and stars.

In conclusion, Malala was just a small girl like anyone else who cared about her looks, played with toys and fought with her friends or brothers. But her background led her to become as she is today: her father had a strong faith in education; her mother taught her to help others; Taliban tried to keep her right to study; many medias and international communities others who tried to help her. Had she lacked any of them, she would not have made a big speech last year at UN conference, the speech which inspired the world.

“I did not write the speech only with the UN delegates in mind; I wrote it for every person around the world who could make a difference. I wanted to reach all people living in poverty, those children forced to work and those who suffer from terrorism or lack of education”

The world is shaking now in an undesired direction and I hope to be able to do something in this regard like she has been doing. Although she is just 17 years old, I learned so much from her life and I wish I could touch someone else’s life like she did to me, especially when many unforgivable things are happening in the world.

Yes, she is Malala.

When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is.(Malala)