Hearing of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - Violence Against Women Around the World

Hearing

The great Pakistani poet, Parveen Shakir, wrote:

"They insist upon evaluating the firefly in daylight. The children of our age have grown clever."

Malala Yousufzai never met the great Urdu poet Parveen Shakir. She could not have, as their lives missed each other by several years, with Shakir's life cut short in an accident in 1994.

But Malala's courage, vibrancy and wit would have made Shakir proud. It would have made her proud that a young woman was standing up so strongly. It would have made her smile that the young woman is only 15 years old.

Unfortunately, now, because of the actions of extremists in the Pakistani Taliban, young women must fight for the right to simply attend school.

Malala, in her young life, has insisted on exposing the firefly to daylight. Her "crime," as seen by the Taliban, is to believe in enlightenment, to believe that out of the darkness tolerance can glow and overpower ignorance.

Shakir would have been both pleased by Malala's actions and saddened that they were necessary. You see, Shakir was highly educated in the pre-Taliban Pakistan, earning two undergraduate degrees, two Masters' and a Ph.D. from the University at Karachi in Pakistan. She taught and published poetry to widespread acclaim.

Contrast this with the battle Malala has led in the Western provinces of Pakistan against the Taliban, whose dictates included that girls should not be educated formally at all.

Malala knew that if the Taliban won, there could never be another Perveen Shakir to come out of Pakistan. Nor could there be another Benazir Bhutto. That is why she fought, and why we should all be paying attention right now to struggles such as hers.

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian, sits on death row for blasphemy. She says it all began when she drew water from a Muslim well. As she was filling her bowl with water, a crowd formed chanting, "Death! Death to the Christian!"

She pleaded for her life.

She was pelted with stones, punched in the face and dragged through the streets. The local Imam finally intervened only to say, "If you don't want to die, you must convert to Islam."

The crowd descended on her again beating her with sticks.

Finally, the police stopped the attackers only to arrest her. For over a year now, Asia Bibi has been on death row for the alleged crime of blasphemy.

According to her co-workers, she insulted the Prophet. In our country, we refer to such quibbling as gossip. In Pakistan, if you are a Christian, it can land you on death row.

Meanwhile, the U.S. taxpayer has forked over billions of dollars to the Pakistani government, which condones the persecution of Christians.

Many countries that receive U.S. foreign aid have laws that officially discriminate against Christians.

Persecution of women is wrong.

Persecution of Christians is wrong.

Persecution of women or Christians in the name of religion must be stood up to.

American power, if it is to have value in the world, must be used as a force against persecution. Our aid money, for example, should never go to countries that persecute women or Christians, not one dime.

But today, it does.

Some say our foreign aid protects American power. These same people, however, resist attaching conditions to foreign aid

Why would we send aid to countries whose laws punish the free exercise of religion? I believe no aid should go to countries that legally discriminate against women or Christians.

We are being taxed to send money to countries that are not only intolerant of Christians, but openly hostile. Christians are imprisoned and threatened with death for their beliefs.

Our jobs, as the powerful, is to use our might to speak for those who cannot.

Whether that is the bully pulpit, our foreign aid, our state department, our immigration policy, or our trade policy, all avenues should be open to us in solving this worldwide problem.

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