A well-educated population is one of the best counterterrorism tools
Leaders as diverse as a Pakistani prime minister, a United Arab Emirates commanding general and a United Nations secretary-general have rallied behind the story of Nobel Peace Prize recipient and terrorism survivor Malala Yousafzai.
The Pakistani teenager was shot in the head by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan in 2012 and has become an outspoken and well-respected proponent of education as a counterterrorism tool. Military and government leaders in the region and beyond have found a new advocate and message bearer in Malala.
“The attempt on Malala’s life was not only an attack on a defenseless child, it was an attack on her and every girl’s right to a future unlimited by prejudice and oppression,” said His Highness Gen. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces. “We must all stand with Malala in promoting tolerance and respect.”
In the realm of military and international relations, Malala’s advocacy of education is known as a “soft power” tactic — one that avoids the direct use of force to achieve a goal. Using education as a tactic to counter terrorism and promote peace is not a new one, but Malala’s inspiring saga has drawn increased interest to the issue.
“Education is the only solution. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world,” she proclaimed during a 2013 speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
Malala’s journey
As a teenager, Malala represents a vital part of Pakistani society in which about 56 percent of the population is younger than 25. She grew up in the Swat valley, in the northern part of Pakistan. Once a major tourist destination and a center of Pashtun culture, Swat became known for violence when the Tehrik-e Taliban, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, occupied the valley from about 2007 to 2009. During that period hundreds of schools were destroyed.
Malala was attacked in 2012 in retaliation for speaking up for girls’ education — a passion that she credits to her father, school headmaster Ziauddin Yousafzai.
“At that time, when Swat — the beautiful valley — was suffering from terrorism, he spoke — he spoke out. And he spoke for women’s rights, because at that time, more than 400 schools were blasted, girls were flogged, people were slaughtered, markets were closed. There was ban on women to go to market. Girls were not allowed to go to school,” Malala explained during a television interview. “And in that hard situation, he inspired me, because he spoke.”
In 2009, Malala, then 11, began an anonymous blog on the BBC Urdu-language website. She focused on what life was like in Swat under Taliban rule. At the same time, she began attracting an audience by speaking publicly about the importance of education. “Reading a book, having a pen in our hands, studying, sitting in a classroom is something very special for us because once we were deprived of it and because what we have seen in Swat,” Malala said in an October 2013 interview with The News International.
But extremists living in Swat couldn’t tolerate her advocacy for girls’ education. Both Malala and her father received death threats from the Taliban. Although the girl feared for her father’s safety, she didn’t think her life was in jeopardy because the Taliban had never executed a child in Swat. Her assumption was wrong.
Malala was shot in the head in October 2012 in Mingora when two terrorists boarded a school bus filled with girls. One attacker shot her in the face, the bullet barely missing her brain. The gunman fired three shots in all, injuring two other girls in the attack. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bloodshed.
Malala was rushed to several hospitals before arriving at a military hospital. Pakistan Army neurosurgeon Col. Junaid Khan saved her life by making the critical decision to cut away a portion of her skull to relieve brain swelling. Later, it was decided Malala would greatly benefit from care at a hospital in Birmingham, England.
The UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed got involved, and the UAE provided an air ambulance to whisk her to the United Kingdom. By the time Malala awoke from a drug-induced coma, more than 8,000 cards of support and encouragement awaited her.
Speaking for his nation, Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has called Malala the pride of Pakistan and said the government supports her education initiatives. The Pakistani government paid for Malala’s medical treatment and housing for the family during her recovery.
Countering terrorism
In an attempt to silence Malala, the Pakistani Taliban instead amplified her voice. Overnight, a teenage girl mobilized an army of supporters to denounce terrorism and violence.
“What the terrorists are doing is against Islam because Islam is a religion of peace. It tells us about equality, it tells us about brotherhood, it tells us about love and friendship and peace, that we should be nice and kind to each other,” Malala said during a radio interview.
She believes that education will help create a tolerant and educated society more capable of rejecting the distorted narratives of extremists and terrorists. School also teaches children equality: Classmates are treated as equals, and rewards are based upon diligence in learning lessons.
As Malala recovers from the attack, she continues her global advocacy. In 2014 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.N. Youth Assembly declared July 12 — her birthday — as Malala Day. In 2013, she co-wrote the book I Am Malala to share her story and message. She also began the Malala Fund to support global education initiatives.
Regional efforts
Malala is not alone in advocating education as a tool for societal improvement. Many of Lebanon’s teachers have attended training workshops to promote tolerance and peace in their classrooms. This has become more important as turmoil in Syria has spilled into Lebanon. The goal is to pass along conflict-resolution skills to students by teaching techniques such as negotiation and mediation. In November 2013 alone, 70 teachers took part in three-day workshops offered by the Center for Active Citizenship and For Development.
“The training empowered us to assume a peace building role in our schools and communities and provided us with necessary tools to apply key peace building concepts,” said Theodora Jaafar, a teacher working in the northern village of Al Qasr. “Sometimes I used to think that we, as teachers, are helpless and that we can’t do a thing to stop the tensions, but after I have attended this training, I know that each teacher can participate in doing so.”
Going beyond schools, many countries have developed programs to spread messages of peace throughout communities. In Kuwait, 1,000 imams have been trained, as well as 450 educators who work abroad, to fight religious intolerance at its very roots.
Kuwait’s Dr. Adel al-Falah, undersecretary for the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Developments, said the program is credited with helping to ensure extremist ideology does not take hold in the country.
“In the long run, prevention is better than cure,” al-Falah said during a visit to share the program’s success with Australian officials in 2013. “You need to look at it like a virus — you need to immunize people against the spread of it.”
Soft power
Malala’s views on education have echoed around the world. “The youth are one of the most powerful groups and also have the greatest potential for peaceful transformation for the society,” said Anne Wu, special political adviser to the U.N. Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force. “So that’s why education is so critical; education can provide a better future for the youth and a better future for the society.”
Education plays a pivotal role in countering terrorism by protecting young people who are vulnerable to terrorist recruiters, Wu added. It was a theme picked up by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a 2013 speech to the U.N. Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate. Extremists plant their seeds of hatred in the soil of ignorance, Blair said, and diversity, tolerance and respect should be taught in schools like science, math and language.
“That is why in the 21st century education is a security issue, and not any education, but education specifically that opens young minds to ‘the other,’ those who are culturally and religiously different, and shows them how the only future that works is one in which people are respected as equals, whatever their faith or culture,” Blair said.
Malala has expressed gratitude for all the support she has received and views her recovery
as a blessing.
“A Talib fires three shots at point-blank range at three girls in a van and doesn’t kill any of them. This seems like an unlikely story, and people say I have made a miraculous recovery …,” Malala wrote in her book. “I know God stopped me from going to the grave. It feels like this is a second life. People prayed to God to spare me, and I was spared for a reason — to use my life for helping people.”
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