[Image Description: Comic 104 in the Zen Pencil collection where inspiring quotes and stories of real heroes are illustrated by artist Gavin Aung Than. This one features 15 year-old Malala Yousafzai and her courageous ambition. The cartoon is followed by a photograph of Malala.]
A version for tumblr that can be read without opening a new tab, since plenty of people would scroll past this story otherwise.
ZEN PENCIL | 104. MALALA YOUSAFZAI: I have the right
Malala Yousafzai (1997-) is a 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head on the way home from school by the Taliban. Her only crime was criticizing the Taliban’s strict rules against female education and standing up for her right to go to school.
Inspired by her activist father, Malala was involved in social justice from a young age. She first gained prominence at age 11, when she wrote a blog for the BBC for 10 weeks (under a pseudonym) detailing her life under Taliban rule. The blog was extremely popular and her real identity was later revealed when her father nominated her for an International Peace Prize. From there she started appearing on television, speaking against the Taliban’s ruling that banned girls from attending school. Her international status grew even more when she was featured in a New York Times documentary (which you can watch here). She continued to speak out against the Taliban and was nominated for the International Youth Peace Prize and won the inaugural Pakistan National Youth Peace Prize in 2011 (now named the National Malala Peace Prize).
On the 9th October 2012, on her way home from school, Malala was shot in the head and neck by a masked gunman (two other children, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, were also injured). The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Malala was “the symbol of the infidels and obscenity”. Straight after the incident Malala was taken to Peshawar Military hospital for an initial operation where part of her skull was removed to allow room for the swelling of her brain and was later flown to the United Kingdom for further treatment. She would receive two further surgeries to insert a titanium plate in her skull and attach a cochlear device in her left ear to restore her hearing. Malala was released from hospital this month and is currently staying in her temporary home with her family in Birmingham and is expected to make a full recovery.
Malala has recently been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person in history to receive the honour, and I [artist, Gavin Aung Than], along with the millions of people she has inspired, am hoping this remarkable young woman wins.
- The Malala Fund was established to educate girls throughout the world.
- The quotes in the comic were taken from her blog entries, the NYT documentary and this interview Malala did with CNN.
- I [artist, Gavin Aung Than] illustrated the events of the shooting after reading a few sources: Daily Mail, The Guardian, CNN, ABC Australia and Wikipedia.
This is intense y’all.
![um…oh right. there’s stuff to read below too.
racialicious:
Asian Pacific Arts: What about opportunities abroad? Have…you pursued working in Asia?
Russell Wong: Yeah, I’ve been working on my Mandarin; I have to have a command of the language. I think a lot of people are working there — John Woo and Ang Lee are casting. I’ve been in Hollywood 22 years; I’ve had a couple good breaks with TV and martial arts things. And martial arts movies are fun – I like to do them, I’m athletic, I can do it – but story wise it’s a bit stereotypical and limiting in a lot of ways. And outside of that it’s pretty quiet. I get a couple guest spots on TV here and there.
But that’s why I really liked doing [Undoing]. It was really fun and interesting. There’s more sense of freedom because you’re not trying to fit into what the studio wants. As an independent, you have more artistic expression. But going back to your question, there’re a lot of people going to Asia. There’re lots of resources and raw material in China as far as stories and content are concerned, so I’m probably going to explore that this next year. [In] Hollywood, there’re not many Asians. I just can’t wait around anymore.
APA: Russell, you’ve been in the game longer. How has your career outlook changed? Have you had to make adjustments?
RW: Yeah this is a game of adjustments, that’s for sure. I wanted to do the martial arts thing for a while and I got to a level. I got to work with Jet Li which is where I wanted to be. But I didn’t have the resources or I didn’t use my resources well enough to do what Sung did and make my own movie. That’s what I should have done. But I did the TV thing – Black Sash. It might have been a better decision to make an independent action film. It’s just a matter of doing it.
APA: Have there been opportunities you’ve passed up and regretted?
RW: Yep. [laughs] I passed up the TV series, because I was run down. Doing action 8 days for an episode, 2 action sequences a week – it takes a toll on you. That’s why I like film. It’s a 22 day shoot; it’s less of a grind than 5 months. That’s why I like this role in Undoing. Where else am I going to get a chance to do a character like this?
APA: Sung, you mentioned earlier about Asian Americans wanting their own Johnny Depp character, and to me, that means some sort of cool sex icon. In a way, Russell’s been filling in that void for the last 15 years. What do you think it’s going to take for an Asian American man to attain that level?
Sung Kang [producer/co-star, Undoing]: I think yeah, Russ has been filling that void. Even with Joy Luck Club – it’s that animalistic sexuality. It’s in-your-face sexuality. But I think that definition needs to broaden a little bit. The more dimensions you put into a character, sexuality eventually comes out. Harrison Ford is a very sexy man. But compared to Johnny Depp, does he hit the 15-16 year old demographic? I don’t think so. But his sexuality is very different, it’s a different definition.
And a definition that I’m so digging—Russell Wong is this week’s Racialicious Crush! Check out my (and the R’s Senior Editor Tami Winfrey Harris’) appreciation of him—and on his birthday, no less!—on the R today.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/7f1dbf1b9f43db604cf8ba1b78e27094/tumblr_mizs9bAfKw1r9qbgqo1_500.jpg)
