Why Malala forgives her enemies

Malala Yousafzai has no bitterness toward the man who tried to kill her, said Kamila Shamsie in The Guardian (U.K.). Yousafzai, 16, was riding the school bus home in northwest Pakistan a year ago when a Taliban gunman climbed aboard and shot her in the head. Her crime: speaking out against the militants’ ban on girls attending school. Yousafzai has no memory of the shooting, but school friends later told her that the gunman’s hand was shaking as he pulled the trigger. “He was young, in his 20s,” says Yousafzai, who now lives in Britain with her family. “And it’s hard to kill people. Maybe that’s why his hand was shaking.” She feels no anger toward her would-be assassin. “People are brainwashed. That’s why they do things like suicide attacks and killing people. I can’t imagine it—that boy who shot me, I can’t imagine hurting him even with a needle. I believe in peace.” Sadly, some of her countrymen do not trust her motives and accuse her of seeking international fame. “Pakistanis can’t trust. They’ve seen in history that people, particularly politicians, are corrupt. They’re told, ‘Malala is working for America.’ It’s fine; they say it about every politician, and I want to become a politician.”

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