A Nobel Peace Prize for Malala and Hina

Pakistani teenagers Hina Khan and Malala Yousafzai

When two teenagers take on the might of the fundamentalist Taliban in a conservative and poor area of Pakistan in the name of education and girls’ and women’s rights, they need all the support they can get.

That’s why I back the global appeal to the The Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai, Hina Khan and girls’ education.

While 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai is recovering from being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman earlier this month, the Taliban are threatening to target another Pakistani teenager, 16-year-old Hina Khan.

After the Nobel Peace Prize going to U.S. President Barack Obama (2009) and the European Union (2012) -- shocking choices in both cases -- what better way to encourage peace than through education generally and girls’ education specifically?

Malala recovering in Birmingham (photo via dailymail.co.uk)

On October 9, a Taliban gunman shot Malala while she was returning home on a school bus after taking an exam in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She is now on the long road to recovery in a Birmingham hospital in the UK.

On her being identified, the Taliban gunman shot her twice, once in the head and once in the neck. Two other girls, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, were also wounded.

Malala is a pupil from the town of Mingora in the Swat Valley. She is known as an education and women’s rights activist in the area, where the Taliban have banned girls from attending school.

She drew attention when, in January 2009, she posted her first anonymous entry to the BBC Urdu blog that would later make her famous. She used the pseudonym "Gul Makai" -- meaning "corn flower" in Urdu -- so as not to be targeted by the Taliban. She wrote about her life under the Taliban regime, their attempts to take control of the valley and her views on promoting education for girls. Later that year, the Pakistani military intervened, culminating in the expulsion of the Taliban from the Swat Valley.

Hina in front of the family home painted with a red "X"

Last week, a red “X” was painted on the gate of Hina Khan’s family home in Islamabad. Hina is also known as activist for education and women’s rights.

A Nobel Peace Prize for Malala and Hina will send a clear message that the world is watching and will support those who stand up for gender equality, universal human rights and the right of education for girls.

After removing the graffiti, the red “X” reappeared the next day and the Khan family got a phone call warning that Hina is the Taliban’s next target.

Hina at a press conference with her mother and father  (via daily mail.co.uk)

The Khan family is originally from the same Swat Valley area of Pakistan as Malala. It was under complete Taliban control from 2007 to 2009. Hina and her family were forced to move to Islamabad in 2006 after publicly criticizing atrocities committed by militants.

Her father, Raitullah Khan, said: “A few days ago when I came out of my house I saw a red cross on my gate, which I removed, assuming it might have been drawn by some kids. But the very next day it appeared again, which really terrified me. We [then] received a call that Hina will be next after Malala. We have already been fighting death threats for many years when my wife started speaking for women rights and girls' education.”

Hina first attracted the wrath of the Taliban in 2008, when she held a press conference after militants started bombing schools in a campaign of intolerance against girls’ education.

Her mother, Farhat, is a social worker and was already a target of the fundamentalist Islamic group after organizing a handicraft exhibit for Swati women in 2006 and supporting women rights and girls’ education.

Malala is joined by her family in Birmingham for Eid (via dailymail.co.uk)

Malala, who cannot speak at the moment, was in a medically induced coma on arrival in Britain on October 15, but has since regained consciousness and has stood for the first time since the shooting.

She was struck just above the back of her left eye, with the bullet travelling down the side of her jaw and damaging the skull. It went through her neck and lodged in the tissue above her shoulder blade. University Hospitals Birmingham said Malala “remains in a stable condition.”

The road to peace is walked one step at a time, one educated person at a time. Malala and Hina have taken the first steps, at a very high cost. By supporting them, keeping them safe and honoring them, we can help make the world a better place to live.

Related post:

The Power of We… for education – October 15, 2012

Let’s get sporty, the devil can wait…

Reading a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report last week on the “denial of women’s and girl’s rights to sport in Saudi Arabia,” had me shaking my head and reviewing a lifelong love of sports and physical activities.

Was I on my way to hell? Indeed not. Sport has always been a big part of my life. It has helped me understand teamwork, sportsmanship and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

HRW’s 51-page report, ‘Steps of the Devil’: Denial of Women and Girls’ Right to Sport in Saudi Arabia, published on 15 February 2012, documents “discrimination by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education in denying girls physical education in state schools, as well as discriminatory practices by the General Presidency for Youth Welfare, a youth and sports ministry, in licensing women’s gyms and supporting only all-male sports clubs. The National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia also has no programs for women athletes and has not fielded women in past Olympic Games,” and the upcoming Games in London this summer.

Could I live without sports? Definitely. But would I have the same quality of life? Absolutely not!

With dad, mom and sister Asma at the beach in Jeddah

My mom, Vicky, used to say I learned to swim before walking. First in Jeddah where I was born, then in Baghdad where we moved, swimming was my first and favored sport. I got into it wholeheartedly and collected a good number of small trophies.

Dad Esa in his tennis whites and on the tennis court

Sports were always a drive in the family. My dad, Esa, was a football champion in Palestine and then switched to tennis. His name is engraved on the walls of St. George’s School in Jerusalem. Every trip we made back to the Holy Land, he would take us to visit his school and proudly show us the plaques bearing his name on the walls of the famous institution.

In primary school in Tunis and then at the Lycée, the two hours of physical education per week were my favorite classes. But the one thing I never got around was rope climbing. I just couldn’t coordinate the simultaneous hands and legs movement. The physical education exam helped boost my Baccalauréat grade in my continuing appreciation for all things physical and outdoors.

Happiest in the sea and preparing to dive

We got our first black and white television in 1966 to watch England play, and win, the FIFA World Cup. There was no turning back after that. The TV was switched on at weekends for the football games, mostly the Italian Serie A matches aired then in Tunisia.  Wherever we were, we would rush home on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, whatever we were doing, to watch the games with dad. Friends would join us and the weekend would kick off.

My first bike

My parents always encouraged outdoor activities like walking, cycling and swimming during summer vacation. Any activity we chose was always encouraged, even when I took up fencing for a while. Dad shook his head, but for months still took me to my fencing class. He must have been pleased when that phase died out.

During the 15-year civil war in Lebanon, there was hardly a day I missed going to the beach. Often we would swim while bullets were raining down on the Sporting Club. I continued swimming in London. Luckily the gym was minutes away from my home and office, making it easy to break up the long days with an hour of laps. Living and working in Chelsea, a stone’s throw away from Stamford Bridge, I adopted Chelsea FC as my football team more than 25 years ago.

At the Dubai Marathon

In Dubai, I found gyms expensive so took to the streets, where apart from the past few months, I run in the open air. This led to my participation in the 10K run at the Dubai Marathon in 2009 (see Why I run? – August 13, 2010).

That’s why I find it hard to understand how sports could be “steps of the devil.”

HRW has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make ending discrimination against women in sports in the kingdom a condition for Saudi Arabia’s participation in Olympic sporting events, including the 2012 London Games.

“‘No women allowed,’ is the kingdom’s message to Saudi women and girls who want to play sports,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that women and girls cannot train to compete clearly violates the Olympic Charter’s pledge to equality and gives the Olympic movement itself a black eye.”

Saudi Arabia is one of only three countries in the world never to have sent a female athlete to the Olympics. The other two, Qatar and Brunei, do not bar women from competitive sports and their women athletes have participated in other international sporting competitions.

However Qatar announced on February 20 that it would send women athletes to the Olympics for the first time at the London Games. The IOC has offered Qatar wild card invitations for two female athletes to compete in London — swimmer Nada Arkaji and sprinter Noor al-Malki.

The UAE made history this month when it announced its first women’s track and field squad will be heading to the London Olympics.

Sheikha Maitha leads the UAE in Beijing

Sheikha Maitha in action at the Olympics

Indeed, Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum -- daughter of HH Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai – also made history for the UAE in 2008. At the Beijing Olympics, Sheikha Maitha became the first woman to represent the Emirates at the Olympic Games where she competed in the 67kg taekwondo event. She was also the first female flag-bearer at the Olympics from the Gulf region, inspiring young women around the Gulf and Middle East.

HRW has called on Saudi Arabia to act within one year to introduce physical education for girls in all schools, open women’s sections, and allocate funds to women’s sport in the youth ministry, the Saudi National Olympic Committee, and Saudi sports federations. The report says “these steps are necessary evidence of a Saudi effort to end discrimination against women in sports and thus a prerequisite for allowing the kingdom to be represented in Olympic events.”

HRW adds, “Women and girls are not only denied the thrill of competition, but also the physical and psychological benefits, leading to longer, healthier lives, that participation in sports conveys...

“Addressing health threats through expanded sports opportunities for women and girls has also been supported by Saudi religious leaders. For example, Sheikh Ali Abbas al-Hikmi, a member of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the highest religious body, considered women practicing sport an ‘Islamic necessity’ and Adil al-Kalabani, former chief imam of the Holy Mosque in Mecca, supported opening women’s sports clubs… Other government clerics of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, like Sheikh Dr. Abdelkarim al-Khudair, however, have decried women’s sports as ‘steps of the devil’ leading to moral corruption.”

The Olympic Charter states, “The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind [and any] form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

Apart from appreciating and watching sports on TV, sports are a way of life that can be adopted in a variety of ways and means. It could be walking, running, swimming, basketball, tennis, volleyball, beach sports… The possibilities are endless.

Practicing one sport or other is one of the things we can do for our bodies and ourselves and can only lead to better health and quality of life.

Let’s do it, let’s all get sporty. The devil can wait…

Related post:

Why I run? – August 13, 2010