When Jesus had crossed
again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he
was by the sea. Then one of the
leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his
feet and begged him repeatedly,
“My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her,
so that she may be made well, and live.”
So he went with him.
He allowed no one to follow
him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the
leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them,
“Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. Then he put
them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were
with him, and went in where the child was. He
took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl,
get up!” And immediately the girl
got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were
overcome with amazement.
Mark 5:21-24,40-42
Jesus took her by the hand and said to her,
"Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!"
In
a perfect world, when she was 11 years old Malala Yousafzai would have been
playing with the Pakistani equivalent of an American Girl doll. But in the
violent and unjust world in which she found herself this schoolgirl was taking
on the Taliban by voicing her passion for education. As Taliban fighters
overran her town in northwestern Pakistan in 2009, Malala spoke about her plans
to become a doctor and defied the Taliban’s crusade to subjugate women by
denying an education to girls like Malala.
On
T.uesday
they came for her. Masked gunmen boarded a crowded school bus, singled her out,
and shot her in the head and neck as other terrified children watched. She
survived, along with two other girls who were wounded. Doctors at a hospital in
Peshawar reported that she was in critical condition.
Incredibly,
the Taliban claimed “credit” for the attack and promised that if she survived
they would come back for her. Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman confirmed
by phone that the Taliban had targeted her and called her campaign for girls’
education rights an “obscenity.” Ehsan went on to say that Malala “has become a
symbol of Western Culture in the area; she was openly propagating it.” “Let
this be a lesson,” he warned.
In a New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof reports speaking with Fazal Moula
Zahid, a close family friend, who told him that doctors were hopeful that there
has been no brain damage and that she will ultimately return to school.
“After
recovery, she will continue to get an education,” Fazal said. “She will never,
never drop out of school. She will go to the last.”
“Please
thank all your people who are supporting us and who stand with us in this war,”
he added. “You energize us.”
It would
be wrong to see the Taliban as the voice of Pakistan. The government is hardly
a model of progressive tolerance, but they are basically at war with the
Taliban. On the other side of the political spectrum, it was a major setback
for Pakistan’s progressives, who were appalled and frustrated by the attack.
Nadeem Paracha, a media commentator posted his sarcastic assessment on Twitter,
“Come on brothers,” he wrote, “Be REAL MEN. Kill a school girl.”
Sadly,
misogyny is a world-wide problem.
Writing
on “The International Day of the Girl,” Kristof linked the shooting in Pakistan
to an incident in Indonesia where a fourteen year old girl was lured into
captivity by sex traffickers and then raped for a week. She was finally
released after her disappearance was reported on the local news.
When her
school found out what had happened, the school publicly expelled her in front
of hundreds of classmates. According to a report by Indonesia’s National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights, they did this because she had
“tarnished the school’s image.”
In the
struggle for gender equality, education plays a critical role. That’s why the
Taliban wants to silence Malala Yousafzai.
“This is
not just Malala’s war,” said a 19-year-old female student in Peshawar. “It is a
war between two ideologies, between the light of education and darkness.”
Kristof notes that at the time he spoke with her the young woman said she was
happy to be quoted by name. “But after what happened to Malala, I don’t dare
put her at risk.”
Throughout
Pakistan there are extremist schools financed by misogynists from Saudi Arabia
and other nations. Kristof writes, “They provide meals, free tuition and
sometimes scholarships to lure boys—because their donors understand perfectly
that education shapes countries.”
Foreign
aid from the United States is mostly directed toward the military. Less than a
tenth of our aid dollars go toward education. The military aid is at best a
short term solution. In the long run, it is education that will shape the
country. Malala’s struggle transcends nation and gender and
religion. It is about shaping the kind of world we want to live in. Her
struggle is our struggle.
Jesus
took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl,
get up!”
It is
through the education of young women in Pakistan and around the world that
Jesus’ words will come alive.
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