"Class Dismissed in Swat Valley," a short, sobering video on The New York Times Web site, outlines the Taliban's decision to ban girls' education in the beautiful and formerly peaceful Swat Valley of northern Pakistan, the country where I was born and raised.

The video profiled Ziauddin Yousafzai, an educator, and his 11-year-old daughter, Malala, who dreams of becoming a doctor. As Malala talked about her desire, she knew she might have to defer that dream. To conceal her tears, she covered her face with her hands; tears welled up in my own eyes.

Malala's school, owned by her father, would close the next day. The Taliban has burned or bombed more than 100 girls' schools. Ziauddin feared if he defied the ban his school would be destroyed.

Driving my teenage daughter to Steller Secondary School in Anchorage, Alaska a few days later, I felt thankful for living in a country where girls don't worry about getting educated or fulfilling their dreams. Clusters of children waiting for school buses reminded me of that sad little girl in Swat. I thought of Swati children passing corpses in their streets; studying amid a din of gunships and military helicopters; going to bed with mortar rounds echoing from the hills, worrying about the Taliban killing them. No children should have to endure that.

On what she feared would be her last day in Ziauddin's school, another young girl, covered in black to hide her identity, expressed her fellow students' disappointment. She read a statement declaring that there was no one who could return her valley to peace and that "Our dreams are shattered. And let me say we are destroyed."

Alaska, my home for the last 31 years, is much like what that far-away, gorgeous valley once was. Swat was a place where people went about their lives without fear, conducted their businesses in peace, and sent their children, boys and girls, to school and colleges. But today girls in Swat have limited choices.

I felt nothing but rage and helplessness after watching that film. I didn't know what to do. But I resolved to inform people about the situation in Swat. I believe the best way to fight the war on terror is with education, not with aerial drones that drop missiles, which also kill civilians, create more militancy and spawn new recruits of the Taliban. While I don't agree with our policy of escalating unmanned drone attacks within Pakistan, I do agree with the idea of increasing aid that aims to empower the populace there - through development programs and education.

I also resolved to find Ziauddin and offer him my support. I have since spoken to both Ziauddin and Malala. They thanked me for caring enough to call them. I told them how their story had moved me and asked them if I could help them in any way. Their response: "Tell others about us and ask people to watch the video."

I'll be spending the month of May in Pakistan. And though Ziauddin invited me to visit Swat, I likely won't. The security situation is tenuous, and I am a coward.

But he has vowed to stay and help his people. I do intend to send some books to Malala from Karachi and offer moral support.

Since the video aired in February, the government of Pakistan has ceded Swat to the Taliban, who, for now, will allow girls to return to school and take their exams in March. But the Taliban has not decided if girls will be allowed schooling beyond fourth grade.

Ziauddin has reopened his school, but doesn't know what the future holds. Malala, who still dares to hope, told me: "I won't let the Taliban stop me. I will get an education somehow. Maybe in Swat, maybe somewhere else."

I hope she succeeds.

I think the soccer ball incident and motor-vehicle incident are conflated and there is no real knowledge of the what happened exactly. The media would however take the opportunity to label it a terrorist attack, when it could just as easily have been an unexploded mine. A soccer ball with a bomb inside it is very hard to miss. BUT preventing access to schools for girl children and threatening the schools that offer a science driven syllabus are destructive for us as a community. Remember, we will remain responsible for these people regardless of their political progress because we are Muslims.

This is OUR problem as an UMMAH. Of course it is an extension of all the events that are occurring in the area, but the fact remains that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have taken a certain view of the women in society that is abhorrent and unjust. As much as we support peoples rights to self-determination and the absence of occupation, Deobandi and Salafi traditions are extremely sexist traditions, and their unadulterated effects on those regions is also a matter of urgency for the Ummah. I know of many people who have taken to tableegh and in turn taken their sons and daughters out of schools, preferring the 4 year aalimah and 6 year aalim programmes. Pakistan ceding absolute control of the province to the very vague and poorly implemented shariah courts in SWAT will regress that countries just ambitions for a long time to come.

Not that I doubt that the American military has targetted Madressahs and Masjids on the pretence that they are militant strongholds. I'd also hope that articles on this site start referencing more than just the New York times but also other independent non-American news sources too. Pakistani, Arab, French, Chinese, German, Latin news sources are all valid sources too.

Strange. You seem to agree with me here.

Something that is as frightening as the Taleban controlling parts of Pakistan is the hysteria in the western press on Pakistan "failing" and thereby nuclear bombs falling into the hands of Taleban / al Qaeda /jihadi groups. While this is a scary proposition it has been blown out of proportion due to an extremely narrow understanding of the problem - in some parts this is understandable because a lot of Pakistanis don't understand what's going on or what the solution is.

The state failure rhetoric has been spewed out since the 50s and its becoming more a case of crying wolf.

As scary as the Taleban are the reality is that a lot of people's hands are dirty in Pakistan when it comes to realizing a progressive existence for its people including a lot of politicians, civil servants, military folk and industrialists as well as the US. They have wreaked havoc with peoples lives and especially their education.

Today Pakistan is increasingly in flux with too much noise as to its identity and its vision. The Taleban are only one part of the problem and the discussion.

I think its sad that Shehla is unwilling to fight the Taliban, because fighting them is the only way to stop them. Apparently, many people in Pakistan share her reluctance to fight them because they continue to win with very little real resistance.

Fighting them is the only way to stop aggressors who violate every truce and seek only to impose their own power: God himself tells us we *have* to fight such people who refuse to halt their agression.

Education cannot occur when they hold a gun to your head or burn the locations of education. Good luck with that, because the long night will be here to stay because when good men and women do nothing, they allow evil to triumph. Welcome to the long night, Pakistan, because you did nothing but stand by meekly; welcome to it.

OmarG >>> Fighting them is the only way to stop aggressors who violate every truce and seek only to impose their own power: God himself tells us we *have* to fight such people who refuse to halt their agression.

Well .. there's fighting and there's fighting. And for someone who constantly appraises Jihaad as a broader socio/political struggle, you seem to resort to the "fight" quite often against fellow Muslims. The Ummah needs the platform to discuss issues and a forum to promote the values too. There is more to gain in mutual exchange than in destruction. Justice has to be won on just terms. Unfortunately for the Afghan people, peaceful avenues weren't even considered

OmarG >>> Good luck with that, because the long night will be here to stay because when good men and women do nothing, they allow evil to triumph.

And Americans won't be able to win over the hearts and minds of people when their military has done the same. You need to admit that the American government has lost any claim to act in good faith. You're constantly reinventing the argument against the Taliban to justify an already pre-empted action. Effectively, the Ummah has lost more ground because of the American "fight" than they have gained. Stop re-inventing the wars as central to the Muslim wars broader responsibility. It is NOT.

Eliza >>> Strange. You seem to agree with me here.

Hardly. Your country is violently occupying one of the poorest nations on the planet, has laid the foundations of a puppet regime and ultimately antagonised the populace into opposing TRUE democracy and HUMAN RIGHTS by promoting its farcical version of one. You blame the Afghan people for their whole condition. I do not.

Fractions of the amounts of money spent to mobilise the dogs of war to fight the Taliban by the US government would have literally bought democracy and human rights for the entire worlds poor. Unfortunately, their ignorance AND your ignorance are Humanities separate enemies. Its a matter of integrity. You must live and promote the values that you proclaim for others. A decent human being would have given dialogue a chance.

And Americans won't be able to win over the hearts and minds of people when their military has done the same>>>>

The target audience for the "winning hearts and minds of Afghans, Iraqis, whoever" PR campaign is the American public whose support these military programs need. At least for now. I doubt anybody on the ground in these places has actually tried to win any hearts of minds ... I mean, really. In fact I am sure that is a source of great dark laughter for many of them.

What I mean, Ghulam, is that in your words you are actually owning a problem.

@Ghulam: >>The Ummah needs the platform to discuss issues and a forum to promote the values too.

Of course we need a platform. However, what do you say about the problem of talking with a group who is not interested in what you say? A group who talks as a strategy to delay their enemies' response to them while they increase their military strength to take over anyway?

>>> However, what do you say about the problem of talking with a group who is not interested in what you say?

That's a strategem of war. And currently the Taliban are fighting an invading force. I doubt they'd have the time or the inclination to to listen to someone like Kharzai.

I would lean to your view, in that the entire Ummahs supposed clerical establishment has not come together to discuss better terms for the Taliban. The OIC, the Arab League, all the various Madrassahs .. noone reaches out to offer alternatives to these people. These bodies do not have the intellectual capacity to offer good alternatives/counsel.

But that is in reality not the fault of the Taliban. Their thousand year old tribal system is serving them now as it did during the mongol invasions, british invasions and now the american invasion. Replacing it with consumerist subservience and the real poverty of neo-liberal global objectives is a far worse punishment.

Eliza >>> What I mean, Ghulam, is that in your words you are actually owning a problem.

Firstly ~ Noone else "owns" Muslim problems but Muslims. In fact, Muslims live their problems. The difficulty is when they have to live with the problems of the United States or the World Bank. You don't know the difference.
Secondly ~ This site and every muslim person who posts here talks about the problems that we own.
Thirdly ~ The problems that you define are these imagined spanish inquisitions of the middle ages. They do not apply to us.

Can you come to terms with these as at least valid?

I think if the only school we had was Sunday school, and we read only the Bible all day every day, and lived without government, municipal services or legal redress, our populations would be in strange frenzies, turning the country into one big Jonestown or Waco.

By all means own your problems and work on them, good luck.

Eliza >>>> I think if the only school we had was Sunday school, and we read only the Bible all day every day, and lived without government, municipal services or legal redress, our populations would be in strange frenzies, turning the country into one big Jonestown or Waco.

Before your country knew the profits of slavery, land grabs and environmental rape .. that was all you had. Check it up for yourself.

I think you project too much of your own fears/prejudices and misunderstandings on to other countries/people. Another mark of your closed-minded and wilful ignorance. In countries where only 28% of people have access to iodised salt, where the average literacy rate is 40% and families live off a thousand dollars a year .. your notions of civil and functioning society have no bearing on these people.

Your country has made this mistake (many people assert intentionally so) and has directly contributed to the destitution, impoverishment and deaths of millions of people around the world. Today you want to give us lessons about how to deal with the worlds problems, when your ignorance and attitude can easily be painted as the biggest problem in the world today. We'll own our problems. WILL YOU OWN YOUR PROBLEMS?

You mean you got no slavery, land grabbing and environmental rape? A literacy rate of 40% can be addressed. If they didn't work for Nike, what would they be doing?

The West has huge aid programs going. The Maersk Alabama was carrying food.

If we left you strictly alone, what do you think would be the result?

Eliza >>> You mean you got no slavery, land grabbing and environmental rape? A literacy rate of 40% can be addressed. If they didn't work for Nike, what would they be doing?

Lol ... Talk about excuses. So if a filthy Muslim could do it, why shouldn't you? You're saying its OK if the US does it?

I've already openly admitted that there are problems in poor nations and that the issues need to be dealt with .. correctly. Wars and rampant industrialisation tend to do little for helping people progress there values. i.e. Greed and Violence and Hatred are hardly the starting point to espouse better values.

Ask yourself this, if the United States effectively changed the regime in Iraq, why couldn't they just put their constitution in to place too? Why can't Iraqi citizens receive the same truly democratic and legal protection that the Americans promised? Why are torture and mercernaries the "enlightened" method, and more acceptable than the Talibans traditional way of life? Did you know that your government arms more militia and mercernaries than the police they're training in Iraq? Did you know that 20,000 "troops" in Iraq are effectively mercernaries from private contractors?

>>> The West has huge aid programs going. The Maersk Alabama was carrying food.

Its universally recognised that AID programs are effectively dumping and bribery operations. Every socialist/democratic leader who has been assasinated by your CIA or rallied against through some other means knows this very well.

I think we're getting to the crux of your ignorance. You're a trophy citizen. Good for you. You've accepted wholeheartedly every piece of misinformation and propoganda put out by your government and political establishment. When your vagrant internet adventures are taking you to random and racist anti-Muslim blogs, why not let them take you to OXFAM or democracy now. If I could recommend a simple book, why not try Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, for a truer picture of the United States foreign policy and the emptiness of your criticisms.

It seems you've skirted the issue once more. Muslims around the world are living their governments problems. Will you TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURS?

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