Malala Yousafzai – the 17-year-old who has made Pakistan proud by becoming the youngest-ever Nobel laureate – first came into the public eye when she wrote a series of blogs for BBC Urdu, describing life under the Taliban and highlighting the issues faced by girls of school-going age in the Swat valley. Dawn spoke to Abdul Hai Kakar, a journalist currently working with Mashaal Radio, who introduced Malala to the world and asked him about his first experiences with the most famous schoolgirl in the world.
Q: How did you choose Malala to write the BBC blog?
A: In 2008, Taliban held almost complete control over the Swat valley and Fazlullah had banned girls from going to school. As a journalist, I wanted to capture the human face of the story; what life was like under the Taliban.
I first pitched the idea to my editors at BBC of a first-person account, much like a diary or a journal, written by someone who was directly affected by the Taliban’s policies.
Having worked in Swat for many years, I got in touch with Ziauddin Yousafzai, who ran a private school and had been a contact for me during the time that I reported from the valley. I explained the concept to him and asked him to help me find a girl who would write the diary.
He arranged for me to talk to a girl who was a 10th grader, but when I approached her, she refused, saying that her parents were apprehensive of Taliban threats and were not comfortable with her contributing such writings.
It was at this point that Yousafzai suggested that I speak to his daughter. He said that she is a bright kid and I should consider her on her merits alone. I agreed and he gave me his home number and made me speak to Malala. That’s how I first got in touch with her.
Q: Were there any problems or hurdles in the creative process?
A: The blog was supposed to appear once a week, maybe Thursdays or Fridays. Since there were several logistical issues in Swat at the time with regards to loadshedding and a dearth of Internet facilities, I transcribed Malala’s words and wrote the diary for her.
There was obviously the concern for her safety, as the Taliban would not take kindly to a schoolgirl speaking against them. After much deliberation, we settled on the pseudonym Gul Makai, which means sunflower in Pashto. It is also the name of a character from a popular Pashtun folk talk, so we knew it would resonate with people from the region.
Another thing I had to be careful about was eavesdropping. The military would monitor the phones of nearly all journalists working in the valley and mine was also definitely tapped. But to ensure her protection, I would call Malala from my wife’s cellphone to avoid suspicion and detection.
Even today, whenever I speak to her or her father, we would always converse in Pashto. But since the blog was to be in Urdu and I did not want to put my words in her mouth, I asked her to narrate the post in Urdu, so I could capture her own language and her own style: it was completely in her own words. Of course I would make suggestions and ask her to talk about things I felt that she had missed, but that is duty of every journalist.
Q: What struck you the most about Malala; what set her apart from other children?
A: I was immediately impressed by two things; her wit and her acute awareness of political realities at such a young age. She had an amazing sense of humour and was a keen observer. Also, she wasn’t shy. You know that in Pakistani society and especially among Pashtuns, women are usually considered timid and are not encouraged to be outspoken. But Malala was always fearless and vocal.
In fact, when she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, that was the first time her identity was revealed. But she took it all in stride.
