Opinion Response: Portrait of the Girl Blogger

To see that the BBC wrote an article with the purpose of spreading Malala´s story is amazing. Malala started writing a for the BBC Urdu when she was 11 with the purpose of letting the world know what life under the Taliban rule is like. Her blog posts are breathtaking. She speaks completely honestly, ignoring the consequences that she was exposed to face. As i read the posts that were shared by the BBC, a new image of the Pakistan landed in my mind, as well as the sympathy of horror that the population there is facing. 

In every post, Malala shares a bit of the horror she has faced through her childhood. Horror no child should ever face. For instance, her post on January 3rd 2009, states that she was actually afraid of going to school, since the Taliban had passed an edict forbidding girl´s education. Her school was affected by the edict, since only 11 out of 27 kept attending after the law was passed. They also had to change the school uniforms into casual dress, so that the Taliban would not find out that the school was still working.

Malala is admirable, ignoring the fear of her people and nevertheless letting the world know the horrors under Taliban rule. Her writing really shocked me and got though to me, giving me a completely different image of the suffering in the middle east. It is truly shocking that she got shot, simply for publishing the truth and I hope that doesnt stop her from writing. 

Opinion Response: Pakistani Activist, 14, shot in Swat

The fact that Taliban Militants are capable of firing upon a woman is unbelievable, but shooting at a 14 year old girl, is simply inhuman. Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen while she was surrounded by other school girls, injuring Malala severely as well as one of the other girls. The Taliban had ordered a shut down of all girl´s school houses. Malala started writing for the BBC Urdu when she had turned 11, two years after the Taliban had taken over.

This article truly left me breathless. Even living in Colombia, a country that has been at war for 50 years and still is, this kind of action is terrifying. This is an extraordinary example to see what kind of savage animals to the Taliban truly are. Malala was considered a public figure, a child writing about her daily life to the world. "We attacked her because she was anti-Talliban and secular, she simply could not be spared." - Ehsanullah Ehsan, statement to BBC Urdu. The arrogance of the Taliban led them to open fire upon a young girl that was simply expressing herself publicly, giving a glimpse of Taliban rule to the rest of the world. 

I considered Malala a true hero after reading this article. It is a proven fact that her father and herself received death threats, since they were both activists fighting for education right of women. Malala used the pen name Gul Makai, and her real identity only emerged after the Taliban were driven to the Swat valley by Pakistani military action. For this reason, she started writing her experience under their extreme Shaira Law implementation. 

Malala received a national award for bravery, as well as being nominated for an international children´s peace award. She is a true hero for her courageous writing acts, ignoring any kind of threat that presented itself. 

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Dowry

I was sattisfied in this chapter as I noticed my biggest question had an answer. Majri was the name of our little girl, the one with the dreams of becoming a prophet and forbidding all suffering. The same Majri that used to speak to god at night and was now heading off to an overseas boarding school, shortly after being kicked out of her other school. The girl is afraid to leave but at the same time happy and that is how I connected in this final chapter to the book. When my parents told me we were going to live in London, I sensed the same mix of anxiety, happiness, and fear. To find that we both ended up leaving and doing fine in our designations roved to me that the character and me did have several ways to connect as I enjoyed the book.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Sheep

When I read this chapter, I reached the conclusion that the little girls parents were my personal enemies as the reader. To see how the little girl connected to well to Anoosh, specially the way he protected the girl from her parents I admired greatly. That is why it hurt me that her parents probably noticed that but still didn't care to hide the fact he was sent to jail from her, even just for a minute. The bond they had was much greater than what the parents liked or accepted. When the girl was able to visit him, that made me very happy as a reader, although I inferred he was going to be killed in prison. Shortly, I found out I was right as Anoosh was executed and the girl realized how big of a war had began.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Passport

When I read the title of this chapter, I immediately imagined the passport that was going to be explained was for the girl to leave the country. As I actually started reading, I was shocked by her going from a child to an adult. Later in, I encountered the remarkable man that I considered Taher to be, after surviving two heart attacks and living on happily. When I was happy with this character, I stumbled with the tragedy of a grenade landing close to his apartment, which caused yet another heart attack. For a moment there, I thought the author was going to make his stay at the hospital a tragic bump in the road but nothing big. Then I was shocked to see the passport was actually to get him to England for a strongly equipped surgery, which he needed. At that moment, I suspected he wasn't going to make it, specially since the whole chapter was dedicated to the attempt to save him. Sadly, I was right and Taher passed away.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-Persepolis

When I saw the title of this chapter, I knew it was going to confuse me in some way or another. As I read it, I felt a scary connection between the little girl and me. For starters, she tries to find out about her grandfather by talking to her grandmother, who only avoids talking about him. Here, I was able to connect because my grandfather died when I was about 10 years old, but I never really got to know him. I probably saw him once a year and truly regret not sharing with him. Now that he has passed, if the topic arrises in a family conversation, it is immediately avoided, Im not sure why. As the chapter went on, it was late one night when the girl´s father hadnt returned. The family started to think he was dead and were very concerned about him. In this part, I had my deepest connection beacuse her family started to worry for their dad as well as my family did for my father. I had just began school when he suffered internal bleeding in his brain, rushed out of the country in a plane-ambulance I truly didnt know about how he was doing for a whole month, as well and my mom not being here but instedad being in the US with him, on my month of school. Fortunetly, we both got our fathers back healthy, him being late at night photographing the rebel take over around the hospital and the deaths that it caused.
Overall, the chapter was not as confusing as I imagined it, but rather interesting. My questions remained as well as my anxiety to keep reading.

Reading Blog: Persepolis-The Veil

The comic book Persepolis starts with an odd but rather interesting introduction. The author started the first chapter by criticizing the Islamic culture from a child, the main charater´s, point of view. The introduction told the reader how the girl was born at the beginning of the Islamic revolution and how this affected her life as a little girl. She questioned that suddenly her school required the girls to wear veils. Then the school breaks apart to different boy and girl schools. This puts her in much doubt, as well as seeing the changes in society with the beginning of the revolution. In this chapter, the author also introduces the fact that this girl´s dream is to become the last prophet. With this, she starts living that part of her life and talking to god every night before going to sleep. I personally had never thought of these point of views when I see the news about a new reform in the Middle East for example. The children´s point of view is usually ignored and not taken into consideration for public awareness. So mostly, I was left with three questions from this chapter: 1. What is the girl´s name? 2. How does she make her point of view important to society and 3. How will she succeed as the prophet she wants to be.