Malala Yousafzai is the 15-year-old
Pakistani girl who was shot by Taliban gunmen last October. Her offense was
that she wanted to go to school. More than that, she had dared to speak and
blog for the freedom of girls like her to receive an education in Pakistan. Her
father had kept a school he operated in a conventional region of that country
open to girls – in defiance of the Taliban.
Two gunmen stopped the school van in
which Malala was riding, forced other students to point her out, and opened
fire. She was critically injured by bullets that struck her head and neck.
Moved from Pakistan to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London, she has received
aggressive treatment over the past three months. Her progress has been
remarkable – a miracle, says her father.
She was discharged from the hospital
last week and is in a safe house with her family. While she is much improved,
she is hardly recovered from her injuries. There will be surgery soon to
replace a shattered portion of her skull. There is more therapy to come. And
some damage to her will be permanent.
For a moment, let your sympathy for
Malala and your outrage toward those who would do such a thing to her extend to
a broader group. She is one very public and visible case of injustice against
women and children. Hers is a most important and extreme instance of the
mistreatment millions of people suffer on a daily basis for their entire lives.
You surely read of the 23-year-old
woman who died after being raped, beaten, and otherwise brutalized in India. That
widely publicized episode has become the occasion for the world to learn how
vulnerable women are in India to lewd confrontations, physical groping, and
sexual violation.
Then last week Operation Sunflower,
led by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials, brought about
the arrest of 245 persons for child sexual abuse and child pornography. Of
those 245, all but 23 were in the United States. As a result of the operation,
44 children were rescued from the adult abusers and pornographers with whom
they were living – five under the age of 3 and nine between the ages of 4 and
6.
The time is long past that you and I
can turn away from such evils. Guard your children and grandchildren. Report
abuse to the police. Don’t make excuses for pornography or stay silent when
others do. The issue here is simple respect for human worth and dignity. Basic
human rights. Love for the most vulnerable.
“If we don’t love the people we can
see, how can we claim to love God, whom we cannot see?” (1 John 4:20).
