Robert Mackey reports the health condition of a young women's rights activist in his article "Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Girl Shot by Taliban Militants , Speaks in News Videos". The article allows the reader to imply and invision the circumstances that women living in Islamic countries must experience on a daily basis. Women's role in our society has evolved from a level of social inferiority to an equal, socially and politically, to that of man. Events and revolutions in women hood spanning between the 1840s to the World War 2 era have brought women a vast array of rights and privileges that were not present in the first century since America's birth, including the right to vote and rightful place in the workforce. Unfortunately, much of the world off the shores of America still visualize women as a merely an expendable possession. Islamic countries have long since retained the tradition of repressing womankind with outrageous rules ranging from the illegality of exposing your face or any part of your body in public to the illegality of driving, rights taken for granite in our free society. Women who do speak out against their abominable living conditions are immediately punished for their "high" crimes, even to the extent of execution for adultery.
One young 15-year-old heroine, Malala Yousafzai, spoke out publicly against Taliban operations in Pakistan. She had been preaching women's rights and education activism since she was 11 (approximately) in the Swat Valley, where Taliban militants have repeatedly attempted to take control of. She began writing a blog to BBC detailing her life in Taliban repression under a pseudonym to protect her from the Taliban. However, recently, she was a target of a Taliban assassination attempt, where they shot here once in the neck and in the head after she revealed her identity in protection of her schoolmates. The Taliban publicly admitted their involvement and desire to kill the girl and her father who spoke blasphemy and heresy against the Book of Islam. She was left unconscious at the scene. Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that she is the "symbol of infidels and obscenity".
Malala was treated for intensive care in a military hospital in Peshawar. Doctors performed a decompressive craniectomy, where a portion of her skull is removed, allowing swelling within the brain. Her chances of survival were around 70%. A CT scan indicated that although there was swelling of the brain, her vital organs were functioning correctly. She was supposed to be shipped to Germany for better care as her condition improved. Offers to treat her spanned from many countries, including offers from US Representative Gabriel Giffords, who too was shot in the head by a deranged lunatic in 2011. Western civilizations acknowledged Ehsan's assassination attempt as an injustice. Their reactions to the assassination attempt shows the drastic contrast between the two cultures. Instead of punishing Malala, Western countries applaud her for her actions.
Malala is now recovering in England. On October 17, she had been reported to have come out of her coma and has a good chance of recovering without any brain damage. The young activist said this since she awoke from her coma,"Today you can see that I'm alive," Irony ensues since she claims that her recovery was God answering every one's prayers and the reason that she was attacked was because she spoke out against the supposed teaching of the Quran. Malala underwent a 5 hour surgery to reconstruct her skull and reestablish hearing in her left ear. The Western countries were able to provide Malala with the proper treatment that she would not obtain otherwise.
Malala's presence will impact on both the Swat Valley and other Islamic cultures across the Middle East and possibly Africa. Her voice will me a major inspirational motor for other women repressed in Islamic culture. She acts as the first step for women's rights in under developed countries who still abide by the sexist laws of the Islam. Women eventually won their long war for women's suffrage and rights in America since we were a free country, willing to listen to the voices of the needy, however, the war for women's rights in Middle Eastern countries will be far more improbable and gruesome.Those countries are not based on the values that make America great. The battle for women's rights in Islam will begin with Malala, launching an ushering of a new era for women in Islamic countries.
Women in the Middle East have not had the opportunity to experience the freedoms that Western cultures grant. Women of all cultures deserve the liberty and justice that so very few possess. If women wish to experience equality in the lesser developed portions of the world, democracy must flourish there. The process of democratization may or may not succeed in the Middle East, but it's experiement has begun in countries like Iraq.
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