‘I see Malala as my leader’, says father of young Pakistani activist made famous by Taliban attackers

Malala Yousafzai with her father Ziauddin during her recovery from a Taliban gun attack. The young activist caught the world’s attention with her campaign for education rights and her refusal to bow to extremist threats.( Reuters)
Updated 10 May 2019
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‘I see Malala as my leader’, says father of young Pakistani activist made famous by Taliban attackers

  • The father of the young education activist targeted by the Taliban is in Dubai to launch his book ‘Let Her Fly.’
  • He tells Arab News about his trailblazing daughter’s fight for equality — and why she is a star in her own right

DUBAI: “For Malala it is not about becoming prime minister of Pakistan but about what contribution she can make to society.”

Those are the words of Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Malala, the young Pakistani activist, Taliban attack survivor and winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

Now studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University in the UK, Malala Yousafzai has said before that one day she hopes to become prime minister of Pakistan.

“I can say that she has the wisdom to focus on areas where she can contribute to the nation and to the world in general,” her father said. “But her objective is definitely not simply to have the title of a prime minister. It’s a good wish to have, but not the ultimate one.”

Yousafzai was speaking to Arab News during a visit to Dubai this week to launch his book “Let Her Fly,” which details his daughter’s achievements and ambitions.




Malala receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 when she became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate. (AFP)

“Her entire struggle has been about equality and justice. She has stood for these values, and it is more important than just attaching a label to her name,” Yousafzai said.

“When Malala was growing up, I was her inspiration. Now I am among her millions of followers and I see her as my leader.”

Yousafzai is more than just the proud father of a young woman who became arguably the world’s most celebrated teenager when she survived an attack by Taliban gunmen in 2012. He has been an education activist in Pakistan all his life and is now helping the Malala Fund, which runs education projects around the world.

Yousafzai said that the security situation in Pakistan has improved considerably, but education still leaves much to be desired.

The Malala Fund has helped to set up modern schools in areas where underprivileged girls need better access to education.

“Things are moving in the right direction, but a lot still needs to be done when it comes to providing access to education for all segments of society,” he said.

According to UNESCO, about 262 million children and youth lacked access to education worldwide in 2017.

Recounting the horrific days when Malala battled for her life after the brutal Taliban attack, Yousafzai recalls the support of people around him and the government of Pakistan at the time.




Malala presenting her autobiography to Queen Elizabeth in London. (AFP file photo)

“I was only saying yes to whatever people around me suggested, and I am extremely thankful that they collectively took the right decisions. I was then just the father of a critically injured daughter, and all I wanted was her life to be saved,” he said.

He is also indebted to those who decided to fly her to the UK for treatment — a decision taken after consultation between military doctors and the government. “She may have survived even if we stayed in Pakistan, but a lot of the reconstruction surgery wouldn’t be possible back home.”

Yousafzai said the family had lived happily in the Swat Valley until the terror attacks of 9/11 when the Taliban began to extend its influence, often attacking educational institutions.

“They had neither missiles nor suicide bombers at the time, so they started destroying girls’ schools. They banned women from going to the markets and started controlling the kind of clothes they wore, which was unacceptable,” he said.

The family decided to raise their voices against the violence and, almost by default, became Taliban targets. “They were silencing dissenters one by one, and it was only a matter of time before they attacked one of us.”

This marked the beginning of a struggle that has been detailed in Yousafzai’s book, which is subtitled “A Father’s Journey and the Fight for Equality.”

“Malala was the youngest of them all, but her voice was the loudest,” he said. “Maybe she was attacked because they looked for a soft target, but she was a star in her own right.

“Whenever she appeared on television, she had a certain charisma. She used to speak up for the girls whose rights had been taken away. She was speaking for the 50,000 girls who were being denied education by the Taliban,” he said.

For more than 20 years, Ziauddin Yousafzai has been fighting for equality — first for Malala, and then for young women around the world.




Malala meeting US President Barack Obama in 2013. (AFP)

________________

TIMELINE

1997 Malala Yousafzai born July 12, 1997, in Mingora in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

2008 Eleven-year-old Malala gives her first speech — ‘How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?’ — to a press club in Peshawar.

2009 Writes for the BBC Urdu blog under the name Gul Makai.

2011 Fourteen-year-old Malala is nominated by South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the International Children’s Peace Prize. She is also awarded Pakistan’s first National Peace Award for Youth.

2012 Pakistani Taliban target Malala. A gunman fires four shots, hitting her and wounding two friends. She is flown to the UK for treatment.

2013 Addresses UN General Assembly, her first public speech since the shooting, and calls for free universal education. Speaks at Harvard University, meets Queen Elizabeth and US President Barack Obama, and is nominated again for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her autobiography, ‘I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban,’ is published.

2014 Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist. She becomes the youngest Nobel laureate and the only Pakistani winner of the peace prize.

2015 On her 18th birthday, Malala opens a school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. 

 


Trump envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ deal with Ukraine

Updated 55 min 14 sec ago
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Trump envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ deal with Ukraine

  • Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin
  • Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy said Monday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine, following talks seeking to end the more than three-year war.
Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.
On Friday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Saint Petersburg – their third meeting third since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January.
Witkoff said during a Fox News interview televised Monday that he sees a peace deal “emerging,” and that two key Putin advisers – Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev – were in the “compelling meeting.”
“Putin’s request is to get to have a permanent peace here. So beyond the ceasefire, we got an answer to that,” Witkoff said, acknowledging that “it took a while for us to get to this place.”
“I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.”
He added that business deals between Russia and the United States were also part of the negotiations.
“I believe there’s a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities, that I think give real stability to the region too,” he said.
Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.
Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.


Xi’s Vietnam trip aiming to ‘screw’ US, says Trump

Updated 15 April 2025
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Xi’s Vietnam trip aiming to ‘screw’ US, says Trump

  • Xi Jinping is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia
  • Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs

HANOI: China’s President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Vietnam’s late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh on Tuesday, his last day of a trip to Hanoi that President Donald Trump said was aiming to “screw” the United States.
Xi is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia, with Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs.
The Chinese leader called on his country and Vietnam Monday to “oppose unilateral bullying and uphold the stability of the global free trade system,” according to Beijing’s state media.
Hours later, Trump told reporters at the White House that their meeting was aimed at hurting the United States.
“I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I don’t. I see they’re meeting today, and that’s wonderful,” he said.
“That’s a lovely meeting... like trying to figure out, how do we screw the United States of America.”
China and Vietnam signed 45 cooperation agreements on Monday, including on supply chains, artificial intelligence, joint maritime patrols and railway development.
Xi said a meeting with Vietnam’s top leader To Lam on Monday that their countries were “standing at the turning point of history... and should move forward with joint hands.”
Lam said after the talks that the two leaders “reached many important and comprehensive common perceptions,” according to Vietnam News Agency.
On the final day of his visit, Xi laid a red wreath emblazoned with his name and the words “Long live Vietnam’s great leader President Ho Chi Minh” at the late leader’s mausoleum in central Hanoi.
He is also due to attend the launch of the Vietnam-China Railway Cooperation, which will help manage an $8-billion rail project – announced this year – to link Vietnam’s largest northern port city to the border with China.
Xi’s trip comes almost two weeks after the United States – the biggest export market for Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, in the first three months of the year – imposed a 46 percent levy on Vietnamese goods as part of a global tariff blitz.
Although the US tariffs on Vietnam and most other countries have been paused, China still faces enormous levies and is seeking to tighten regional trade ties and offset their impact during Xi’s first overseas trip of the year.
Xi will head to Malaysia later Tuesday and then Cambodia on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, Beijing has said.
Xi earlier urged Vietnam and China to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere” in an article published on Monday in Vietnam’s major state-run Nhan Dan newspaper.
China and Vietnam, both ruled by communist parties, already share a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach – striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
The two countries have close economic ties, but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.


China accuses US of launching ‘advanced’ cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games

Updated 15 April 2025
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China accuses US of launching ‘advanced’ cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games

  • The attacks had ‘the intention of sabotaging China’s critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information’

BEIJING: Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.
Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
The NSA agents were identified by Xinhua as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have “repeatedly carried out cyberattacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyberattacks on Huawei and other enterprises.”
It did not specify how the two American universities were involved.
The US Embassy in China did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The detailed allegations come as the world’s two largest economies spiral deeper into a trade war that has already spurred travel warnings for Chinese tourists going to the US and halted imports of US films into China.
“The US National Security Agency (NSA) launched cyberattacks against important industries such as energy, transportation, water conservancy, communications, and national defense research institutions in Heilongjiang province,” Xinhua said, citing the Harbin city public security bureau.
The attacks had “the intention of sabotaging China’s critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information,” it added.
Anonymous servers
Xinhua said the NSA operations took place during the Winter Games and were “suspected of activating specific pre-installed backdoors” in Microsoft Windows operating systems on specific devices in Heilongjiang.
In order to cover its tracks, the NSA purchased IP addresses in different countries and “anonymously” rented a large number of network servers including in Europe and Asia,” Xinhua said.
The NSA intended to use cyberattacks to steal the personal data of participating athletes, the news agency said, adding that the cyberattacks reached a peak from the first ice hockey game on February 3. The attacks targeted information systems such as the Asian Winter Games registration system and stored “sensitive information about the identities of relevant personnel of the event,” Xinhua said.
The US routinely accuses Chinese state-backed hackers of launching attacks against its critical infrastructure and government bodies.
Last month, Washington announced indictments against a slew of alleged Chinese hackers who targeted the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Commerce, and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, South Korea, India, and Indonesia.
Beijing denies all involvement in overseas cyber espionage.
After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organizations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behavior.
In December, China said it found and dealt with two US cyberattacks on Chinese tech firms to “steal trade secrets” since May 2023, but did not name the agency involved.


Britain boosts aid for victims of Sudan conflict at conference

Updated 15 April 2025
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Britain boosts aid for victims of Sudan conflict at conference

  • British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the war had been going on for far too long “and yet much of the world continues to look away”

LONDON: Britain said on Tuesday it would provide 120 million pounds ($158 million) more in aid to people in Sudan, which it said faces the worst humanitarian crisis on record, as it hosted a conference marking the two-year anniversary of the conflict.
The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule.
The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated regions like Darfur, where the RSF is now fighting to maintain its stronghold amid army advances in Khartoum.
Rather than mediating directly in the conflict, Britain said Tuesday’s conference in London would be a chance to improve the coherence of the international response to the crisis, although Sudan criticized the fact its government was not invited for the talks.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the war had been going on for far too long “and yet much of the world continues to look away.”
“We need to act now to stop the crisis from becoming an all-out catastrophe, ensuring aid gets to those who need it the most,” he said in a statement, adding that the combatants had shown “an appalling disregard” for Sudanese civilians.
Britain is co-hosting the London conference with the African Union, the European Union, France and Germany. Egypt, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates are among the other attendees.
Sudan’s foreign minister has written to Lammy to complain, saying Sudan should have been invited, while criticizing the presence of the UAE and Kenya.
Sudan has accused the UAE of arming RSF, a charge the UAE denies but UN experts and US lawmakers have found credible. Sudan has also recalled its envoy to Kenya after it hosted talks between the RSF and its allies to form a parallel government.
Bankole Adeoye, African Union commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said “achieving peace in Sudan depends on valuing every voice and everyone playing a role in building a prosperous Sudan.”

AID CUT
Britain said 30 million people desperately needed aid and 12 million people were displaced, with famine spreading through Sudan. Lammy announced a separate 113-million-pound aid package in November, and in January he visited Sudan’s border with Chad.
However Britain’s support for victims of the conflict comes as the government has slashed its foreign aid budget to pay for increased defense spending.
Although Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to continue aid to civilians in Sudan, one of three priorities along with Gaza and Ukraine, his development minister resigned, saying Britain’s aid priorities would be impossible to maintain and the cuts would ultimately harm Britain’s reputation abroad.
On Tuesday, lawyers acting for Sudanese victims submitted a 141-page dossier outlining alleged war crimes committed by the RSF to the UK police’s special war crimes unit, with a request to pass the file to the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over atrocity crimes in Darfur.
By sending the file via the UK police rather than directly to the ICC, the lawyers said they hoped to provide an impetus for the two jurisdictions to work together more closely on accountability for Darfur.

 

 


El Salvador’s Bukele says he will not return man the US mistakenly deported

Updated 15 April 2025
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El Salvador’s Bukele says he will not return man the US mistakenly deported

  • Case of Maryland resident wrongfully deported dominates visit

WASHINGTON: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said at the White House on Monday he had no plans to return a man mistakenly deported from the United States, suggesting that doing so would be like smuggling a terrorist into the country.
His remarks came during an Oval Office meeting where multiple officials in President Donald Trump’s administration said they were not required to bring back Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite a US Supreme Court order saying they must facilitate the Maryland resident’s return.
Abrego Garcia’s case has drawn attention as the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people to El Salvador with help from Bukele, whose country is receiving $6 million to house the migrants in a high-security mega-prison.
The US government has described his deportation as an administrative error. But in court filings and at the White House on Monday, the administration indicated it does not plan to ask for Abrego Garcia back, raising questions about whether it is defying the courts.
Bukele told reporters he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the US
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said, echoing the Trump administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Bukele’s comments came shortly after US Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the same meeting that the US needed only to “provide a plane” if Bukele wanted to return Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have denied the allegation he is a gang member, saying the US has presented no credible evidence.
The US sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador on March 15. Trump called reporters asking whether the administration would follow the order for his return “sick people.”
“The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the Oval Office meeting.

Mega-prison
Trump said he would send as many people living in the US illegally to El Salvador as possible and help Bukele build new prisons.
The US on Saturday deported 10 more people to El Salvador it alleges are gang members.
The migrants El Salvador accepts from the US are housed in a facility known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. Critics say the prison engages in human rights abuses and that Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has swept up many innocent people without due process.
Bukele told Trump he is accused of imprisoning thousands of people. “I like to say that we actually liberated millions,” he said.
The US president reacted gleefully to Bukele’s comment. “Do you think I can use that?” Trump asked.
The State Department last week lifted its advisory for American travelers to El Salvador to the safest level, crediting Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the US government assertion that they were.
The Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to gangs including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, which it labels terrorist organizations.
Last month, after a judge said flights carrying migrants processed under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act should return to the US, Bukele wrote “Oopsie... Too late” on social media alongside footage showing men being hustled off a plane at night.

Tuesday hearing
An immigration judge had previously granted Abrego Garcia protection from being deported to El Salvador, finding that he could face gang violence there. He held a permit to work in the US, where he had lived since 2011.
The US Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling directing the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” his return. But it said the term “effectuate” was unclear and might exceed the authority of the district court judge.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Legal experts said Judge Paula Xinis may press the Trump administration to determine if it signaled to Bukele that he should refuse to release Abrego Garcia, which could amount to defiance of the court order’s language to “facilitate” his return.
While the Supreme Court in its decision ordered Xinis to clarify her order “with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” some legal experts said Trump is likely defying the court by undermining Abrego Garcia’s release.
“All that is total claptrap as applied to a case like this, where the only reason why the foreign country is holding the person is because the US pushed them to do it and made an agreement under which they would do it,” George Mason University constitutional law professor Ilya Somin said.
“It’s very obvious that they could get him released if they wanted to.”
Trump told reporters on Friday that his administration would bring the man back if the Supreme Court directed it to do so.