"If something hurts us deeply, it is the passivity of the leaders in the face of the biggest refugee crisis in recent decades"
malala's pardon
"We are refugees," stresses Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala's father. "And if something hurts us deeply, it is the passivity of the leaders in the face of the biggest refugee crisis in recent decades, the one caused by the war in Syria... Armed conflicts leave more than 28 million children in the world without school That's something we can't tolerate."
Ziauddin breaks a spear for the refugees on the occasion of the premiere of 'He called me Malala', the documentary that reconstructs the story of father and daughter, including their incursion into the Syrian border with Jordan, where they witnessed the exodus that does not stop.
"What we saw was terrifying and inhuman," Ziauddin recalls, speaking to EL MUNDO. "Entire families, mothers with their children in their hands, children with worn out soles from walking through the desert... In some places they even make them return, because there is no more room for them. But what we saw was a lot of people helping. That gave me back my faith: Humanity is still alive".
"The world has to wake up to this crisis that is happening at the gates of Europe," says Ziauddin. "A way must be found to stop the human suffering and a real effort must be made to end the conflict."
Malala and her father have done their part by opening a school for 200 Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon, created through the Foundation that bears her daughter's name.
"Without education there is no future, and if we don't tackle this problem soon we could lose an entire generation," warns former Professor Ziauddin, who advises former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as global ambassador for education. "Malala grew up like they say in my school... Education is the liberating and emancipating instrument, especially for women."
But education can also be "indoctrination", acknowledges Malala's father, a staunch defender of "secular" schools. "I was also indoctrinated as a child. In the Swat valley of Pakistan there was always a great jihadist influence. I had a teacher in a mosque who instilled that spirit in us. I even prayed and asked: 'God, make me a martyr'".
"From there I went to the other side and I became what we would say here a leftist militant," adds Ziauddin. "My activism increased with the arrival of the Taliban and when they began to destroy the schools. I spent every afternoon in acts and in more or less secret meetings, I had little time to see the family."
Ziauddin stands up to those who criticize him for having excessive influence on her daughter, for having exposed her to danger or even manipulating her destiny, from the moment he decided to name her after the legendary Pashtun heroine.
"I called her Malala because it is the only recognizable name for a woman in our culture. Women there have almost no identity and are known as 'the wife of' or 'the daughter of'. In our patriarchal society, a daughter is almost like a property".
"I wanted Malala to have an identity and a voice of her own, and for her to have the courage to speak for herself," her father defends herself, "Although I would have given her another name if I had known that it would protect her from gunshots." ".
Now that Malala has dropped that her dream would be to become prime minister, she would accept it, "because of the trauma that we have all had to go through. Our only wish is that she have a long life and a normal existence, that she marry and have children. Now, if you want to start a political career, it will be your decision. I tell you to look and reflect: many politicians become prime ministers and do not really have the power to change things. There are more effective ways of trying to change society, and I think that their work in the last two years, through the Foundation, has been very effective".
Oxford or Stanford? At 18, Malala will soon have to clear up the uncertainty of her university studies. We asked Ziauddin if "separation anxiety" weighs on both of them...
"At Stanford we asked if we could live together, the whole family. They told us no, that we would stay off campus... I don't know what she will do in the future. After all, I have raised her to be independent and free".
