Extra Credit Talk

On October 30^th, I attended a talk with Amitabh Pal titled: The Nobel Fighter: Putting Malala Yousafzai in Context. I chose this as one of my extra credit opportunities because I was hoping to learn more about the book I am Malala and also about prejudices against Muslims in America and world wide.  He opened his talk by giving some background in the book and setting the stage by detailing what is going out in the Middle East today. He discussed how there is strong militant power in the Middle East and most countries have one person in charge. This leads to mix feelings toward the government within countries and leads to conflict. The government is strict especially toward women. Most were not able to be educated and some could not leave their houses. He detailed the US use to drones in Pakistan, these are automatic planes that are targeting the Taliban but have killed civilians too. This has fueled those in Pakistan to have harsh feelings toward the US and one politician was finally courageous enough to stand up to the US to say this is an issue. He spoke highly upon seeking peace between Pakistan and India.

Out keepsake from this event was a copy of the Progressive Magazine. This publication investigates and reports cultural and political issues. This magazine values freedom of speech and he encouraged us that his is a great place to learn more on the current issues.

Amitabh Pal also talked about some of his own works as well. One of the reasons he published his writings was to share his idea of what Islam is today and how it is impacting the world. Overall, this talk opened my eyes to the current issues in the Middle East today and the misconceptions about Islam. It is still surprising to me how suppressed the voice of women is and how few rights they have.