As Taliban supporters crawl out of the woodwork in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai recalls when she survived an attempt on her life by the group nine years ago. After all this time, ‘she is still recovering’ from that one bullet.
“Nine years after being shot, I am still recovering from just one Taliban bullet.”
Nine years after being shot, I am still recovering from just one Taliban bullet. Read more: https://t.co/wrnJIEW06G pic.twitter.com/gd4oow1WIE
— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) August 24, 2021
In her piece for Podium, Malala Yousafzai shared how just two weeks ago she underwent another surgery ‘to repair the Taliban’s damage’ on her body. At the time Taliban were slowly expanding military conquests across Afghanistan.
“On August 9 in Boston, I woke up at 5am to go to the hospital for my latest surgery and saw the news that the Taliban had taken Kunduz, the first major city to fall in Afghanistan. Over the next few days, with ice packs and a bandage wrapped around my head, I watched as province after province fell to men with guns, loaded with bullets like the one that shot me.”
Casualties of War
Back in 2012, a Taliban gunman targeted her for encouraging women’s education. While the Nobel Laureate was fortunate enough to have survived, it makes her even more acutely aware that many under Taliban rule are not as lucky.
“The people of Afghanistan have taken millions of bullets over the last four decades. My heart breaks for those whose names we will forget or never even know, whose cries for help will go unanswered.”
Malala Yousafzai is concerned about the future of women, and their rights under Taliban rule.
“As soon as I could sit up again, I was making phone calls, writing letters to heads of state around the world, and speaking with women’s rights activists still in Afghanistan. In the last two weeks, we’ve been able to help several of them and their families get to a safe place. But I know we can’t save everyone.”
The women’s education activist shared, if she was not already famed when the Taliban shot her, she would not have been saved. Now as people scramble to escape Taliban rule in Afghanistan yet again, she knows many will end up nameless casualties.
“When the Taliban shot me, journalists in Pakistan and a few international media outlets already knew my name. They knew that I had been speaking against the extremists’ ban on girls’ education for years. They reported on the attack and people around the world responded, … But it could have been different. My story might have ended in a local news item: ’15 year-old shot in the head’.”
Similarly, the United Nations Human Rights Council Chief, Michelle Bachelet voiced grave concerns about the situation in Afghanistan, saying;
“A fundamental red line will be the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.”
