Riveting Malala

In her work Yes, She Can!, Texas muralist Anat Rosen envisions Malala as a modern Rosie the Riveter, the icon of U.S. women who provided much of the industrial might that helped to win World War II. 

Along with other geographers, I have been admiring the courage of Malala Yousafzai, a young activist who was nearly killed for advocating the education of girls in Pakistan. Hers is not a fight that is limited to the Islamic world, of course, as U.S. politics tilt ever further in the direction of the dystopian future portrayed in A Handmaid's Tale.

I am pleased to be reading her story -- I Am Malala -- with students in the BSU Honors Program this summer. I will be one of several faculty members leading discussions during a day-long program about the book in September. I am working with students in the program -- especially the geographers -- to develop  the Malala Honors Map, which will highlight all of the places mentioned in the rich story of her life.



At the time of this writing, the map includes only the location of the Salman Rushdie protests in Islamabad, but the students and I will be adding many more locations related to Malala's story as the summer progresses.