Malala Yousafzai is sitting with her father Ziauddin in a pensive mood at her hometown Mingora, Swat, taking me off guard.
“I hate my name Malala — meaning mournful — which keeps happiness away from me.”
Such profound understanding from an 11-year-old girl back in 2009 brought a smile to our faces amid the pervading gloom. But today, when she is fighting for her life, her words still resonate in my mind.
In 2008, I came across the-then 10-year-old Malala for the first time during one of my visits to her father Ziauddin’s school in Swat.
Malala was no different from other girls her age except for one thing — her striking confidence. She would confidently respond to any poser coming from a hardened journalist.
The rendezvous came at a time when Swat valley was slipping into the hands of the militants, and very few were willing to counter the radical statements of Maulana Fazlullah, who was then leading the Swat Taliban.
Ziauddin’s dedication for the cause of education would attract many journalists, including this scribe, and Malala was handy to talk to on camera during such interviews.
In 2009, when militants announced a deadline to close down all schools for girls from February 15, those parents whose daughters were enrolled in schools were on tenterhooks.
Ziauddin however, was more worried than others. He was disturbed not only about his school, which he set up through hard earned money, but also as spokesperson of the Swat Private Schools Associations.
After talking to Ziauddin over phone, I left Peshawar for Swat at midnight to document the last day of girl’s education in the valley.
Class Dismissed was Malala’s introduction to foreign audiences, which was so well received that once I received an email from a jury member requesting to showcase the documentary at a festival.
It was not the make of the video, which drew popular appeal. Rather, Malala’s remarkable expression and dedication to the cause of girls education carried the day.
Adam B. Ellick, co-producer of the documentary, shared with me a story in which reluctant sons of a U.S. doctor were persuaded to go to school after their parents showed them Malala’s inspirational video in which she was seen going to school even as death stalked her.
Many would ask me what is so special about Malala? I would say that her fearless nature is the most striking feature of her personality. Shy to engage in small talk, Malala is almost transformed as she goes on camera.
Her love for education is as deep as her bond with her father. I remember how her eyes sparkled when Ziauddin told me, “I fell in love with Malala after I saw her for the first time at birth. I love her, I love her.”
In 2009, the Swat Taliban announced on their FM broadcast that Ziauddin was on their hit list. That was really hard on the family. One day, I asked Malala about her feelings after she heard her father’s name in Taliban’s broadcast.
She looked at her father and the next moment, her eyes welled up. We pretended as if it was funny to cut through the tension.
It never occurred to me that the militants would actually attack Malala. We always feared for her father and I would call Ziauddun, off and on, from Peshawar to caution him about looming Taliban threats.
But the Gramscian spirit in Ziauddin was so dominant that he would never listen to me.
After a huge displacement of people before the military operation in October 2009, the New York Times correspondent Adam B. Ellick contacted me for another documentary and we both accompanied the family for many months in Haripur, Abbotabad and on the way back to Swat.
Once in Haripur at her aunt’s house, I asked Malala what she misses the most and she replied, “my chickens.” Her two younger brothers shared the same concern. It was a relief to know her innocence was intact.
After the end of their three-month ordeal, we were on our way to Swat to see what was left of their dwelling after the military operation forced the Taliban to retreat.
As we closed in on her house, Malala started running; this made us run, too. Adam was shooting the scene and the first thing she did after unlocking the door was to look for the two pet chickens she discussed with me earlier. Unfortunately, they were not around, probably slaughtered as well.
Malala began to cry.
Back to the present. With Malala hopefully, on her way to a successful recovery following the dastardly attack, this also unburdens me. It is a guilt that has haunted me for days. I feel she might not have been targeted had journalists avoided exposing her to militant threats.
Such feelings usually grip me every time I see children becoming a victim of this conflict. But Malala’s is a different story. I knew the family well and played a major role in telling her story to the world.
More than that, a malicious media campaign led by Jamaat-e-Islami wherein Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s daughter and ex-MNA Samia Raheel Qazi flooded social networking sites with a picture implying that Malala’s brief exchange with Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s former Special Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan, had an ulterior motive. Malala, in fact, was only urging Holbrooke to invest more in the education of girls as is revealed by the New York Times video.
Another video clip of Malala’s passing remarks about troops is part of the damaging campaign. While I remained in touch with the family for most part of the turbulent times, I will just say that only sick minds can carry on with such insinuations.
If Qazi Hussain Ahmad does not remember the way MMA in 2009 gave Swat on a platter to the militants, we journalists are witness to what happened there when the Jamaat ministers looked upon the Taliban as their constituency.
Malala’s comments about the troops from the NYT video have been taken out of context. It was the spontaneous reaction of someone who had endured a nightmare.
A while after Malala found her pet hens, we left Ziauddin’s school located at a stone’s throw away, only to find that the school was a shambles. Ziauddin was annoyed after finding holes in walls and the debris on the floor.
How would a lower middle class family coming back penniless after being displaced for months only to find they needed to repair their school — their only source of bread and butter — have felt?
What should Ziauddin and Malala have said under such circumstances? One can only imagine the anguish and grief visited upon Malala, Ziauddin and thousands of others during those harrowing days.
Malala was visibly perturbed at how her classroom appeared in a ransacked state. Any person in his or her right mind would have felt the same.
Nevertheless, it is heartening to see the dominant and prevailing view in Pakistan and elsewhere — it is one of pride in the courage of the nation’s daughter.
The author partnered Adam B. Ellick in the first documentary of note featuring Malala Yousafzai. He is currently pursuing a PhD in the U.S.
