I was in a book shop browsing through the new
released bestsellers when I had a chance to talk to this nice American lady
about her favorite books. We had a small talk and I was surprised to learn that
one of her favorite books was ‘In The Name of Honor, By Mukhtar Mai’. I had
read this book long back and honestly, I could not keep down the book then. ‘In The Name of Honor’ is the memoir of Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman from
the impoverished village of Meerwala (Pakistan), as told to the French writer,
Marie-Therese Cuny, and translated from French to English by Linda Coverdale. It is a beautifully written book, incredibly powerful and extremely important memoir that portraits Mukhtar’s fight
for justice. She was "sentenced" to be gang-raped by the tribal
council of her village, to pay for a crime her 12-year-old brother did not
commit. She was brutally gang-raped but instead of dwelling on the injustice
committed against her, she focused on her fight for justice and dignity.
Instead of committing suicide as so many rape victims in her situation would do,
she fought for herself and eventually became an outspoken activist for
Pakistani women.
‘… As you
read ‘In The Name of Honor, I think you will find a story that is tremendously
inspiring rather than one tells of brutality and despair. By the alchemy of her
courage and stubbornness, Mukhtar has taken a sordid tale of gang rape and
turned it into something heartwarming and hopeful. And that is one more reason why,
when I am around Mukhtar, I sense that this shy pleasant woman is truly a great
and historic figure – and why she’s one of my heroes’ - Nicholas D. Kristof.
I cannot agree more as it puts me in a thought about the other thousand million
souls who are fighting a battle of their own.
Ergo; I
dedicate this post to the indomitable spirit to survive!
There's this
place called Earth. It can often be pretty surprising. On this small planet, sometimes immense pain can lead to happiness leading
to change in the outlook which was never known in the first place. Everyone has a weakness they hide, everyone
has a tragedy they don’t talk about, and everyone has a battle of their own that
they are fighting. But nobody really speaks about it, nobody wants to. It is
kept hidden wrapped under the fake smiles and happiness because we are afraid
that the world might step on our fault lines and would make us screech.
People have
scars in all sorts of unexpected places, like secret road maps of their
personal histories, diagrams of all their old wounds. Most of our wounds heal
leaving nothing behind but a scar; not something to be ashamed of, for they are
the manifestation of how strong we have been. Scars are the signs of a fighter.
They remind us what our journey has been all about. They remind us where we've been and what we've overcome. No one can claim life has been perfect to
them. Life is not perfect; it has its
setbacks. Things go bad and sometimes worse.
Life gets unbelievably treacherous at times and we all have dragged
ourselves at some point to make things right. Life is like that. May be we are
all made that way. It doesn’t matter how tough we are. An ordeal creates mayhem,
unleashing all the wounds, the fear and the trauma. But maybe that’s the point.
May be going through all that is what keeps us moving forward. It’s what pushes
us. May be we have to get a little messed up, before we can step up.
My point here
is, life is not as bad as it seems. There is always something left to search for, something to fight for. Look around you and you will know how blessed you are. It is the time to
get up and stand for what you believe in. The time for you to embrace your
strengths, clean up the dirt, glue the broken pieces together, and show the
world what you are made of. If you fail in doing so, try again. Keep trying, until you dare to conquer this complex life, or make
the world seem a bit more magical all the while helping those who
simply can't help themselves. Whether that means fixing what the world has
helped to break, or having the decency to be a bit more mindful, especially of
those who have been left behind. With the world as it is, we all sometimes need
to be reminded to take the plunge, even if everything can sometimes seem quite
trivial. But there are moments even amongst the greatest despair when the world
proves that it's all worth it. When the small blue dot in the infinite universe
where we live on reveals its true beauty, and when we'd think of rising ourselves up a notch.
