For many progressive Pakistanis, the 16th of December is a day to shamefully mourn the atrocities committed against Bangladesh, and to simultaneously congratulate Bangladesh as the country celebrates its liberation day.
2014 is the year that changed. In the blackest day of the country’s history, beyond all the wars and all the suffering Pakistan has faced, today, the mothers and fathers of 132 children awoke early not to see their children off to school, but to face the truth; on 16th December, militants from TTP massacred 141 people at an army school in Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Of that 141, 132 were children. The motive was supposedly to get revenge against the state and military for Operation Zarb-e-Azab.
In Pakistan, people hate Malala Yousafzai because they think her struggles, her ordeals, are sensationalized. “Nothing like this happens in Pakistan, even in villages there are schools,” is the claim made by such detractors. While the Peshawar massacre did not happen in opposition to education, for people in the country who are wary of education, this only reinforces such beliefs that cities, towns, are unsafe, that education is a privilege of the middle and upper class, and not a basic right for everyone regardless of social or financial status, or gender.
For these reasons, the story we share today is about an ordinary man who is struggling to ensure that his children, specially his daughters, have a better life filled with more opportunities than he ever had. It’s a struggle when your right to provide for your children is challenged by archaic social norms and attitudes, but this one man is determined, and sure that he will succeed in ensuring a good life for his children.