New details on Malala's case, giving an insight into Pakistan's lose Taliban policies

While Malala Yousufzai’s condition is stabilizing, details on the attack last week are slowly emerging. According to Reuters, one of the two gunmen involved in the shooting has been identified by his first name. Attaullah, a young man, was arrested in 2009 during the Pakistani military campaign that pushed the Taliban out of the Swat Valley. Due to a lack of evidence of connections to terrorist groups, he was released after only three months. However, a senior security official is refuting this statement, indicating that authorities reputedly did gather enough evidence to arrest Attaullah when they raided his house in the Swat Valley. According to officials, Attaullah organized the attack on Malala on orders of one of the Taliban's most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah, who operated from Afghanistan after the 2009 military raid before returning the Pakistan this past June. Critics say Pakistan's low conviction rate of militants, even high-profile individuals who carried out major attacks, is one reason why extremism has spread in the South Asian nation. Public fury over the shooting has increased pressure on the Pakistani military to mount a major offensive against the Taliban, which has close allegiances to Al Qaeda and a host of other militant groups. The Taliban, fighting to topple the government and impose a radical theocracy, have blown up hundreds of girls’ schools in recent years in Swat and other areas to further their opposition to the education of women.


- Lea von Martius

The Next Generation of Young Female Leaders: Confident, In Control, and Visionary

“Many change agents focus on pathology. Instead, one must focus on vision.”

                                                                                                                                -Gail Straub

 Gail Straub, co-founder of the Empowerment Institute, held an eye-opening and profound leadership workshop with nine global scholars from Korea, Egypt, India, Afghanistan, Indonesia, South Africa, the United States, and Austria from September 17-19, 2012. Organized in advance of the launch of the Omega Institute’s new Women’s Leadership Center during the 2012 Women &Power conference near Rhinebeck, NY, Gail’s workshop imparted the tools and skills necessary to allow these dedicated young women to explore their own leadership styles and to identify the next steps for growth and empowerment.

The commonalities between the issues these women from around the world say they face are striking: across the board, the global scholars indicated that they needed help with boosting their own self-confidence, “owning” their achievements, finding a “mirror” to be able to accurately assess their efficacy as a leader, finding a balance between masculine and feminine as well as head-driven and heart-driven leadership styles, and being able to trust others. Although the women work in extremely diverse fields, including with female inmates in the United States, with sex workers in India, in interfaith and women’s empowerment projects in Indonesia, and in building shelters for women in Afghanistan,  they faced similar challenges in being able to fully claim and flourish in their leadership potential.

Gail helped the group to identify their own personal “limiting beliefs,” such as “In order to trust someone else I have to give up control,” and to redefine these beliefs to create achievable visions. She pointed out that most change agents focus on pathology—that is to say, they focus their attention on identifying and defining problems, which tends to cause the problem to grow and to limit an individual’s ability to find solutions to the problem. Instead, Gail encourages young leaders to focus on their vision—and the solution to the problem will follow.

Azza, from Egypt, has the following vision: “I want to be in control of my life—I want to get in the boat of life and guide the boat, not let the boat be guided by the waves.” Hyung Kyun, from South Korea, wants to “harvest the abundance of life.”

 

On September 22, Gail interviewed Azza, Samu (from South Africa), Manizha (from Afghanistan), and Tejaswi (from India) on stage at the Women & Power conference. These courageous young leaders got a standing ovation from the crowd as they shared their life experiences and hopes for their own future as well as for the futures of women in their communities. It is female leaders like these with whom SAVE liaises around the world to find new and sustainable ways of combating violent extremism, through the targeted and responsible inclusion of women in the security sphere.

The Hijab and women in Afghanistan

The Burqa ban has inspired much debate around Europe and the world. In this article first published in Foreign Policy blogs, Tahera Nassrat explains women's motivations for wearing the Hijab, considers the family's role in preventing women from achieving independence, and suggests how families can better follow the Quran through equal treatment of girls and boys.

Hijab is the Arabic word for “Curtain, or Cover”. It is taken from Hajb meaning to cover, to veil, to shelter. Muslim women wear the Hijab for different reasons. Some wear the Hijab to delight their God- in reference to holy Quran. Some to please their families and some to obey the Islamic law.

Afghanistan is one of the Islamic countries where women wear Hijab by law, not by choice. The law which powerful Islamic groups created misuses the concept of Hijab in the Quran and forces women to cover and remain home. The holy Quran asks Muslim women to wear an outer garment when going out to differentiate them from non-Muslims and identify them as “believing” women in the society. The holy Quran does not say that women should be veiled and kept at home away from mixed society. Conversely, it insisted on full participation of women in society and religious practices.

Women in Muslim countries like Afghanistan are compelled to behave in a certain way from the very beginning. When a girl is born, different treatment is afforded to the girl. They are told to avoid men’s room, talking among elders, walking without a veil and joking with boys. Girls are always shown to be weak human beings while boys are seen as strong. It is common among families, that when a boy cries, the parent says, “Are you a girl to cry?” or “A boy never cries”. Boys get the sense of being a strong human being. Girls get the sense of being weak, dependent and followers of men.

This internal discrimination germinates a feeling inside Muslim men that they no longer wish their wives and sisters to be independent and uncovered. They meet and make relations with non-Muslim women who are not veiled and treat them respectfully, but do not provide the same respectful treatment to Muslim women.
Motivation, support and equality are not delivered to the girls in the families. Rather, discrimination spreads out into the society, where women find it hard to stand up and speak for their rights. So, why such a discrimination from parents to their children? Why should women should dress and behave against their wishes when men do not?

I think reconciliation of these incorrect concepts is necessary. Families should educate themselves and deliver equal treatments to their children. They need to understand that personality, Islam and religion is not an appearance. It is in you and the way you behave and treat others. People should increase their level of awareness and avoid practices like forced marriages and limiting women from society. They should instead sponsor a poor family or provide shelter, food, clothes and medication for those who are suffering.

Follow this link to watch an interesting short video from "60 Minutes" about the Burqa and Hijab bans in Australia and Europe.