I have not yet met Pakistan, although I hope to someday. I feel as if I know her because I have so many wonderful people in my life who know and love her. They speak of her beauty, her potential, the innate connection they each have with her. I hear and feel the pain that they feel when they speak of her hardships, lives lost, and the constant-seeming conflicts erupting on a daily basis.

Now, even more than usual, my heart beats with and for the Pakistani people, for all human beings, and especially, for Malala Yousafzai. Malala is 14 years old and, today, lies in a hospital critically wounded. Why? Since the tender age of 11, Malala has been publicly advocating for peace in Pakistan, speaking against Taliban rule, and campaigning for education for girls. Because she refused to be intimidated, refused to back down from tyranny, she was targeted; according to reports, Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt on this 14 year old girl.

While we must never answer violence with more violence, lest we beget more of the same, it is important that we stand united against these archaic acts of destruction. We must continue to share the message that these violent acts and those who carry them out do not represent Islam, Pakistan, and the many human beings risking everything to make this world better for others. And so, we stand in solidarity with Malala and all of our brothers and sisters around the world practicing kindness, compassion, and peace: We Are One.

Angela King

For Malala Yousafzai, by Tahir Wadood Malik

at fourteen she has
so much to live for
but surely not
a bullet in her head

to show the cowardice
of those who can not
stand up and face
a girl of fourteen

because her stand
in their face
makes them afraid
of an idea that she represents

and which may
cast doubts among
the professed guardians
of a religion to which belonged

Aisha the wife, all of Malala’s age
Nasibah steadfast at Ohad
Fatima the daughter of Muhammad (pbuh)
mother to Hassan and Hussain, wife of Ali

Zainab Bint Ali too among the names
Umm e Kulsum wife of Usman
and a list of brave
learned, revered women

negated due to their deliberate desire
of ignoring history and narrative
of fourteen hundred years and more
taught, recounted and remembered

but they in their narrow interpretations
seeking to create a cult militant
ignorant, short on truth
long on hate of things that

go against their desire of leading
without opposition
neither ijmah nor questioning
where the khalifa got the cloth

to make a full shirt
or having two lamp with oil
from the state and self
for work and leisure.

and all this threatened
by a girl of fourteen
wanting to be like
the women of Islam

taught to her by her teachers
ingrained in her mind by parents
practiced by her daily
seen happening in life

and a bullet to the head
to end the life at fourteen
hanging to life in a hospital
by a tenuous thread

are the perpetrators
so afraid now
that a fourteen year old
that too a girl

becomes a threat to their edifice
made like a house of cards
one voice of a girl
against all odds