Be Bold for a Change

By Karla Mundo

“Be Bold for Change” was the theme of International Women’s Day 2017. Coincidentally, for the past year, I have been stumbling upon unbelievable stories of courageous women from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Tibet, India, and other places on the planet. All these narratives I have read made me contemplate the clear invitation of what “Being Bold for Change” signifies.

In my case, being bold means writing about stories and people that are struggling to achieve human rights. It is hard for me to write about superficial things like how the weather is, or about a sitcom or a reality show. I cannot think only of fashion, although I love colors and materials that transform into a beautiful outfit.

To me, writing with consciousness and acknowledging others in the world is my calling.

I could not think of a better story that represents being bold than the story of Malalai Joya—a very brave Afghan woman who, in 2003, made headlines for daring to stand up against a very controlling, extremely oppressive, conservative, male-oriented culture and parliament.

In her book, A Woman Among Warlords, Malalai gives us the opportunity to educate ourselves about how countries that have experienced foreign invasion are suffering. Malalai wants us to know that the false image that Afghans are criminals is not how she knows her people, whom she calls “people with a rich culture and proud history. People capable of defending their independence and governing themselves.”

Being bold for change has brought several death threats, humiliations, and the constant censoring of her voice for telling the truth to 38-year-old Malalai. Although fundamentalists and warlords refuse to listen to what she has to say, in 2005, when she was only 27, she was elected as the youngest woman in Parliament.

By reading her book, I understand that Malalai wants you and me to know her story. With Malalai’s story, I think of Parvana, the 11-year-old brave character of the children’s book The Breadwinner, written by Deborah Ellis.

In A Woman Among Warlords, Malalai introduces herself by saying, “I come from a land of tragedy called Afghanistan.” Then she goes on narrating how, when she was a baby in 1978, the Soviet Union invaded her country, forcing her and her parents to live as refugees in Iran and Pakistan. After the Russians left her country, a civil war broke out, then the Taliban arose; seven years of US invasion plus continued foreign occupation has left Afghans terrorized. In spite of all the challenges her country has endured, Malalai Joya keeps advocating for her people.

Malalai Joya’s boldness is going to be recalled in history in the same way we remember Joan of Arc, Margaret Fuller, Sojourner Truth, Emily Dickinson, Emmeline Pankhurst, Simone de Beauvoir, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Wangari Maathai, Dolores Huerta, Indira Gandhi, Frida Kahlo, Rigoberta Menchú, Aung San Suu Kyi, Gabriela Mistral, Isabel Allende, María Izquierdo, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, María Argentina, Minerva Mirabal, Minou Tavárez Mirabal, Maria Montessori, and many others.

But what does it mean to be bold? What does it take to be bold?

In my opinion, it is courage, determination, perseverance, and resilience.

It was courage that took 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai to stand up while riding the bus to school. When the Taliban asked, “Who is Malala?”, she replied with confidence before being shot in the head: “I am Malala.”

It was courage that took 10-year-old Nujood Ali to court in 2008 to ask for her divorce after two months of being hit and raped by her “husband.”

Child marriages, with the excuse of a country’s “tradition or custom,” have been happening for so many years in spite of organizations trying to change the legal age for marriage. There are children’s rights that must mean something.

We must be brave to tell others to stand up with us for the women who are being oppressed—regardless of if they are close to us as our sisters, mothers, friends, and daughters, or far away in another land like Malalai Joya, Malala, and Nujood.

We all can do something, and in doing so, we will become more united, sensitive, and compassionate citizens of the planet.

                                   ©KarlaGMundo2018