Extremism is a pandemic, which requires a vaccination ASAP

I am an educationist and a humanitarian. I began teaching the underprivileged children in rural Pakistan when I was just a 13 year old girl, during 24 years of my work I have been facing a lot of threats and attacks for my work, but since a few months the situation has gotten so tough.

On Wednesday I was sitting in my home office attending an online meeting, all of a sudden I saw a teenage boy standing outside my home in front of the security cameras. He was so much angry, first he said they will cut my throat, then they are keeping an eye on me, then that they will rape me. I took the video recording on my mobile and shared with my team.

Everybody said close the school right now. There was an annual result ceremony in our school  which we canceled and called the mothers to collect the result of their children, one by one so that we do not only keep everyone safe from covid19 but also from any possible attacks on the school.

Some friends suggested that we should leave the village; we started looking for a home in another city by using some reference because we decided to not to go out of home or to travel.

When the mothers came to know about the school closure they started coming to meet me and the team. Their children have denied to go to any other school, many of them cannot afford to pay the fee, some cannot afford to go far in another school; some children have no other to look after them if we move from here.

One of the teachers has no parents and she feeds her old grandparents, one disabled auntie and one younger sister with the salary that we pay her.

One teacher’s father is a drug addicted and does not do any work to feed the children, but keeps beating the wife and the children all the time. This teacher helps her family with the salary.

Another teacher’s elder brother ate poison last month because he has no work and he is tired of being poor. This teacher helps her family with the salary we pay.

Today two mothers came to meet me and one of them said that her husband was also in the Mosque when the cleric said that’’ Even if he will have to die he will get Sister Zeph’s school closed’’ That woman said that her husband thinks the cleric is provoking young men to kill sister zeph and the team.

My two years old daughter went outside to play with the children outside home today when I went to take her inside the house one motorbike was passing by and I just hid myself and Eva because I thought maybe here are someone to kill us in the street.

It is almost midnight and I am awake and every time I hear some noise in the street it makes me scared for the security of my old and sick mother, my sister, my five months old son Zephaniah and my two years old daughter Eva.

Every night we go to bed by thinking that maybe it is the last night for us all and our crime is, that I decided to teach and empower women and children in Pakistan and I remained committed to my vision, my children are at risk because they belong to me, my sister and my mother do not know if we will see tomorrow’s sun because they decided to support me by all means in my cause.

Maybe we will be safe and will shift somewhere soon, but maybe I will not be able to save the future of my 200 students who are my children, who are the love of my life, for whom I gave my life and I never looked back, for whom I have really high dreams. Today they want to meet me, so they can convince me to keep the school, but I have no courage to face them, I have no more strength to tell them that I cannot be there for them anymore. If I stay here I will lose my family and if I go from here I will lose my students.

If I go, many of them will have no food, no books and education. They will get married as children, some will go to child labor, and some will face physical and sexual violence.

Some people say I should go to the police, I also want to go, but before I will come back home from the police station someone from the police station will inform the cleric and his followers that I went to report against them. Also, once I go there and it comes in the knowledge of the police we are worried that we will be at more risk, and then who will give us the security every single moment because police cannot be with us all the time.

Governor of the Punjab Police Salman Taseer was killed by his own security guard because he spoke in favor of a Christian woman Asiya BB who was arrested because of false blasphemy accusation against her and was released later on, on the order of the honorable supreme court of Pakistan.

This cleric never speaks against our vocational training center because he is building a school not a vocational training center

May be we will find a way to evacuate from here safely and may be my teachers and students also get another way to continue their education and better life.

But it breaks my heart that Qari Javed is provoking teenage boys against me only because he wants my students to go to his Islamic center. He is pouring hate in the hearts of these young children that will remain with them throughout their lives.

This is not about me and my life. This is the time to think about these mind sets that are prevailing and will destroy our world if we will not rise up to stop them.

These people are not afraid of putting innocent lives at risk for their small benefits.