[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15006]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO MALALA YOUSAFZAI

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 12, 2012

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call my colleagues' attention 
to an eloquent op-ed article by First Lady Laura Bush, published in the 
Washington Post this week following the horrific attack by Taliban 
gunmen on a 14-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai. Mrs. Bush writes: 
``Malala inspires us because she had the courage to defy the 
totalitarian mind-set others would have imposed on her. . .[she] 
refused to look the other way. We owe it to her courage and sacrifice 
to do the same.''
  We are all horrified by the news of the savage attack on Malala. 
Taliban gunmen hunted her down as she returned home from school in the 
Swat Valley town of Mingora, Pakistan. The Taliban attackers also 
wounded two other schoolgirls riding on the bus with her.
  This was a tragedy that could easily have been foretold. Malala was 
perhaps the most famous 14-year-old girl in the world, and for good 
reason. An activist since age 11, she had forcefully advocated for the 
cause of girls' education through a BBC blog, and she is a nominee for 
the International Childrens' Peace Prize. All she wanted to do was 
attend school like her brothers, in the hopes of becoming a doctor. But 
the Taliban announced their intention to kill her for her beliefs.
  We can honor Malala by recommitting ourselves to invest in the 
development of girls all over the world. It is painfully ironic that, 
as Malala fights for her life this week, the world marks the first ever 
International Day of the Girl Child, designated by resolution of the 
United Nations General Assembly in 2011. Today, as we pray for Malala's 
survival and full recovery, our hopes must go beyond the Swat Valley 
and beyond the tribal totalitarianism of the Taliban.
  The U.S. Agency for International Development points out that of the 
850 million girls in the world, some 62 million do not attend school. 
This has devastating effects, not only on these girls and their 
families but on the generations that succeed them.
  One in seven girls in the developing world marries before the age of 
15. This leads to early pregnancy, and a host of risks to her life and 
health. But, with at least 7 years of basic education, young women tend 
to marry up to 4 years later, and they have 2.2 fewer children. USAID 
points out that with each extra year of basic education, a young woman 
earns 10 to 20 percent more in income. And women tend to spend a 
greater proportion of the finances under their control for the benefit 
of their family than men.
  The Pakistani people value education, as we well know from our own 
admiration for the Pakistani Americans who so enrich our society. It is 
encouraging that the Pakistani people and government have rallied in 
support of Malala. The government has committed itself to bringing her 
attackers to justice, and spontaneous demonstrations of support for her 
and for the cause of basic education for girls have sprung up 
throughout the country.
  Malala's hope was to become a doctor. But in the New York Times video 
posted this week after the attack, we learn from Malala's family that 
she was also thinking of becoming a politician, so that--in the words 
of her father Ziauddin Yousafzai--she could help create a society where 
a girl could easily achieve a doctoral degree, or any other academic 
goal.
  That should be our focus as we work with the Pakistani people to 
create that society, and destroy the mind-set that says women and girls 
must remain subjected to domination by men.

               [From the Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2012]

                         Why Malala Inspires Us

                            (By Laura Bush)

       On Tuesday afternoon, Malala Yousafzai was a 14-year-old 
     girl riding home on a school bus. Now, after a masked gunman 
     apparently boarded her bus, asked for her by name and shot 
     her in the head and neck, she is fighting for her life. 
     Malala was targeted by the Pakistani Taliban because for the 
     past three years she has spoken out for the rights of all 
     girls to become educated. After this despicable shooting, a 
     Taliban spokesman said that his organization considers 
     Malala's crusade for education rights an ``obscenity'' and 
     accused her of ``propagating'' Western culture. If she 
     survives, the group promises to try again to kill her.
       Eleven years ago, America awoke to the barbaric mind-set of 
     the Taliban. Its regime in Afghanistan was dedicated in part 
     to the brutal repression and abject subjugation of women. 
     Women were not allowed to work or attend school. Taliban 
     religious police patrolled the streets, beating women who 
     might venture out alone, who were not dressed ``properly'' or 
     who dared to laugh out loud. Women could not wear shoes that 
     made too much noise, and their fingernails were ripped out 
     for the ``crime'' of wearing nail polish.
       Today, the Taliban has been pushed back, but it still 
     operates in parts of Afghanistan and in the northern and 
     western regions of Pakistan along the Afghan border. The city 
     where Malala was shot, Mingora, is in Pakistan's Swat 
     province, which has been on the front lines of the battle 
     against Taliban extremists. In 2007, the Taliban gained 
     control of Swat, only to be largely pushed out in the summer 
     of 2009 by a Pakistani military offensive. During its time in 
     power, the Taliban closed and destroyed girls' schools, 
     leaving behind little more than piles of rubble; enforced its 
     own interpretation of sharia law; and banned the playing of 
     music in cars.
       At age 11, to protest what was happening in her homeland, 
     Malala began to write about her experiences, producing a blog 
     for the BBC's Urdu-language service. She described wearing 
     plain clothes, not uniforms, so that no one would know she 
     was attending school and wrote about how she and other girls 
     ``hid our books under our shawls.'' Nonetheless, after the 
     Taliban forced the closure of her school, Malala had no 
     choice but to stay home and suspend her education. In another 
     blog entry, she wrote: ``Five more schools have been 
     destroyed, one of them was near my house. I am quite 
     surprised, because these schools were closed so why did they 
     also need to be destroyed?'' A few weeks later she wrote, ``I 
     am sad watching my uniform, school bag and geometry box'' and 
     ``hurt'' because her brothers could go to school while she 
     could not.
       Malala had dreamed of becoming a doctor, but recently she 
     became interested in politics and speaking out for the rights 
     of children. In 2011, Malala was a nominee for the 
     International Children's Peace Prize, which lauded her 
     bravery in standing up for girls' educational rights amid 
     rising fundamentalism at a time when few adults would do the 
     same. Last year, she was awarded Pakistan's first National 
     Youth Peace Prize. These are the accomplishments of the young 
     girl who so terrified the Taliban.
       Condemnations of the attempt on Malala's life have been 
     swift and powerful. The U.S. government called it 
     ``barbaric'' and ``cowardly.'' Pakistan's prime minister 
     said, ``Malala is like my daughter, and yours too. If that 
     mind-set prevails, then whose daughter would be safe?''And 
     the Pakistani army's chief general said that the Taliban has 
     ``failed to grasp that she is not only an individual, but an 
     icon of courage.''
       Speaking out after an atrocious act, however, isn't enough. 
     Malala inspires us because she had the courage to defy the 
     totalitarian mind-set others would have imposed on her. Her 
     life represents a brighter future for Pakistan and the 
     region. We must speak up before these acts occur, work to 
     ensure that they do not happen again, and keep our courage to 
     continue to resist the ongoing cruelty and barbarism of the 
     Taliban. Malala Yousafzai refused to look the other way, We 
     owe it to her courage and sacrifice to do the same.
       Malala is the same age as another writer, a diarist, who 
     inspired many around the world. From her hiding place in 
     Amsterdam, Anne Frank wrote, ``How wonderful it is that 
     nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve 
     the world.'' Today, for Malala and the many girls like her, 
     we need not and cannot wait. We must improve their world.

                          ____________________