Asia Times
My introduction to Malala Yousafzai through her schoolteacher father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was somewhat accidental. It happened during the Taliban's unprecedented ban on girls' education in Pakistan's Northwestern Swat Valley in December 2008.
I had been covering the story for the BBC's Urdu-language service. The ban prompted me to pitch to my editors the idea of enlisting a young schoolgirl to write a blog for our widely read website. The concept was simple - to document life under the Taliban as seen by a schoolgirl.
After getting the go-ahead from the editors, I approached one of my key contacts in Swat [in northwest Pakistan], Ziauddin.
He
ran a private school and was a vocal member of the anti-Taliban Swat
Qaumi Jirga (community assembly), and provided great insight into his
troubled homeland.
Within days he introduced me to one of his 10th-grade students who was eager to write the blog but soon backed out because of parental pressure. Nonetheless, I persisted and pressed Ziauddin to help me in finding a replacement. He eventually turned to his 11-year-old daughter, who gladly accepted the challenge.
It was the worst of times in Swat. After years of fighting in the remote western tribal regions along Afghanistan's border, the Taliban had expanded their reach and captured a strategic district close to Pakistan's heartland and imposed harsh rule. Floggings of alleged thieves and fornicators, beheadings, suicide attacks, and targeted killings were everyday occurrences. Raising a voice against Taliban atrocities in Swat was practically akin to signing your own death warrant.
Read more
My introduction to Malala Yousafzai through her schoolteacher father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was somewhat accidental. It happened during the Taliban's unprecedented ban on girls' education in Pakistan's Northwestern Swat Valley in December 2008.
I had been covering the story for the BBC's Urdu-language service. The ban prompted me to pitch to my editors the idea of enlisting a young schoolgirl to write a blog for our widely read website. The concept was simple - to document life under the Taliban as seen by a schoolgirl.
After getting the go-ahead from the editors, I approached one of my key contacts in Swat [in northwest Pakistan], Ziauddin.
He
ran a private school and was a vocal member of the anti-Taliban Swat
Qaumi Jirga (community assembly), and provided great insight into his
troubled homeland.
Within days he introduced me to one of his 10th-grade students who was eager to write the blog but soon backed out because of parental pressure. Nonetheless, I persisted and pressed Ziauddin to help me in finding a replacement. He eventually turned to his 11-year-old daughter, who gladly accepted the challenge.
It was the worst of times in Swat. After years of fighting in the remote western tribal regions along Afghanistan's border, the Taliban had expanded their reach and captured a strategic district close to Pakistan's heartland and imposed harsh rule. Floggings of alleged thieves and fornicators, beheadings, suicide attacks, and targeted killings were everyday occurrences. Raising a voice against Taliban atrocities in Swat was practically akin to signing your own death warrant.
Read more
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