Honouring Malala

The United Nations has proclaimed today Malala Day in honour of 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai who was shot in the head by the Taliban a month ago today because she dared campaign for equal schooling and education rights for girls in Pakistan.

I remember that day very well.

I had come back to my hotel after a day of apartment hunting in Vancouver.

I had heard of Malala before.

BBC World News had done a story on her campaign for schooling rights for girls a while back.
When I turned on BBC World News and heard the headlines and then saw the images of an unconscious little schoolgirl- eyes shut and a huge bandage around her head- being wheeled away on a stretcher...

... I wept.

When I saw the images of the small schoolbus van where she and two other schoolgirls had been shot by the Taliban and the seats and walls still had blood stains...

I wept again.

There are some men (and maybe even a few women) who say it's always unmanly to cry.

But I am of the opinion that any man who does not weep when confronted by such images is a man without a soul.

Malala's name was added to my personal prayer list that day.

And I've been praying for her ever since.

When Malala's father announced to the world from a Birmingham hospital that Malala had opened her eyes and was now conscious, I felt joy.

Said Malala's father, "The angels are with Malala. And the devils are on the side of those who shot her. And the angels are winning..."

Indeed Malala's shooting shook Pakistan.

Support for the Taliban fell rapidly in Pakistani public opinion.

The Taliban issued statements trying to justify their actions but it fell on deaf ears.

The shooting had been a public relations disaster for them.

What can you say about a group of supposedly tough warriors who are so afraid of schoolgirls that they shoot them?

On the news tonight, Malala and her father were reading Get Well cards sent from all over the world to Malala in her Birmingham hospital room.

And today all over Pakistan in honour of Malala Day, schoolgirls marched and paraded holding signs that proudly said, I am Malala.

A month ago, the Taliban thought they could get rid of 1 Malala by shooting her in the head...

... instead they have created a million Malalas...

... maybe even a billion across the globe.

For the angels are with Malala...

...and the angels are winning.