She was targeted because she had been secretly advocating for the education of females.
This is the Taliban's enemy? A 14-year-old girl who -gasp- wants to be educated and wants other women to be afforded the same opportunity? This group already has a reputation for being backward, violent, and intolerant. I'm so grateful to read that local and national government officials are doing something to bring these cowards to justice.
I have been blessed with a strong heritage of dignified, intelligent, bold women. When my Grandma Laney wanted to get a job because her youngest started school, she began by looking for a sales clerk position, or a secretary job. Her husband, my Grandpa Laney, suggested that she find a job she really wanted to do, one that would allow her to use her sharp mental faculty. She got a job at the Library of Congress. This is my heritage.
I went to the Molly Brown House in Denver last Christmas. When I saw this teapot, showcasing the political/social issue Mary Brown and her contemporaries were fighting for, it reminded me of my Grandma Laney and all the strong women in my family history. I come from several lines of women who know it is their place to be involved, know it is their place to be voting, know they are at least as wise, strong, and intelligent as their male counterparts. I bought this teapot and it occupies a place in our living room, where flat surfaces are scarce. Seth has wisely not protested its placement there.
This morning Seth and I did a service for our precinct leader: we distributed 325 "Arapahoe County Voter Guides" to the homes in this half of our precinct. On Monday, I will go for my Election Judge training class. I voted for the republican candidate in 1992 in Utah, a state that was 100% certain to go to that candidate, having waited in a line for more than two hours to do so. I have written here about my affinity for celebrating America's Independence. I consider living in the United States to be one of the biggest blessings I was given.
This is my high school class ring. [Thanks again, Dad! I have always loved this and been grateful for it!] This ring shows that I went to 13 years of public school and finished all that they asked me to do. Naturally, I also have a diploma that says the same thing. I went on to BYU and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Humanities, because I have such a quick interest in so many different things that I was unable to focus my learning in any one field. I love learning new and interesting things and skills. Knowledge and the quest for knowledge are part of my very soul.
My prayer is for the rest of the women in the world: that they will stand up and claim their rights and privileges as women. That they will stand up to ancient and evil notions that they must not use their minds or obtain an education. They they will continue, like Malala Yousufzai, to protest and correct the wrong and degrading treatment women still receive in some places. And that they will be able to find joy in womanhood and acknowledge the blessing it is to be a woman.
My sister Malala is so breathtakingly pretty in her pictures. I pray for her recovery and for those around her to rally to her aid and to beat the Taliban down with every effort they can muster.
1 comment:
Yes, I too heard about this. Having a propensity towards making strong women in my family, so many times I've been grateful to be born in America at the time I was and then to have daughters HERE where they can really fulfill their dreams. I am sorry that India, China, and the Middle East (among many other places) do not offer girls, esp. that same privilege. Neat thing is--that her story DID capture the attention of the atrocities of what the Taliban and others are doing and put it on a world stage.
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