CrossFireArabia
By Ismael Al Sharif
America did not come to liberate us, but rather replaced one darkness with another, and destroyed what remained of our dignity – Malalai Joya, an Afghani writer
When the USA launched its war on Afghanistan in 2001, the slogan it used was “saving Afghan women” as one of the main justifications for the invasion to gain popular support.
Stereotypes remain ingrained in memory: Veiled women deprived of the most basic rights, living under the oppressive Taliban regime, and in desperate need of a “savior” from overseas.
However, the reality was far different, as testimonies from international women’s organizations then confirmed.
Afghan women did not ask for military intervention as their basic needs were clear: Safety, livelihood to feed their children, basic health services, and safe shelter. Simple human needs were taken from them in the name of the alleged “liberation.”
The rogue state has since followed the same American approach when it launched its aggression on Iran, it claimed to defend oppressed women, and repeated the same regarding Syria.
Biased Western media, aided by opportunistic feminist organizations, rushed to publish misleading reports about the “suffering of women” in Gaza before the Al-Aqsa Intifada, allowing the Zionist entity leaders to issue shocking statements, claiming the ongoing genocide in Gaza aims to… “liberate women.”
Falsity of claims
Malak’s story exposes the falsity of these claims and lay bare their painful truth.
At the age of 20, Malak Musleh harbored a dream that weighed as much as nations: To stand in the international boxing ring, holding the name of Palestine high. She trained with a slim body and an iron will, and fought dozens of local battles. Little did she know her true battle would be against a million-dollar, western-manufactured missile fired at her while she sat in a Gaza beach café, devastating a girl who had not had enough training to avoid the fatal blow.
In YouTube footage, Malak is seen training with her friends on the same beach in worn-out gloves, improvised punching bags, and bodies defying hunger, bombardment, and displacement. Behind them is a scene epitomizing Gaza: Rubble towering above a sky open to the world’s wounds.
Their training wasn’t an ordinary sport but a dance on the brink of death, a fistful of life in the face of the extermination machine. The sight of them training with the most basic means, carrying punching bags for each other, surpasses sincerity and impact in all of the dramatic works and artificial heroics produced by the Hollywood film industry.
The solid will and human dignity of these girls far surpasses all the fictional heroic stories produced in film studios.
Before Gaza was transformed into a war zone, Malak and her 40 friends trained at the Al-Mashtal Club, the first Palestinian women’s boxing gym. Simple walls adorned with pictures of world champions, and a small arena that nurtured dreams larger than its space.
This was until the occupation came and destroyed them, just as it destroys everything that symbolizes life there. However, the bags hanging on the remains of the walls did not fall; instead, they were transported to the beach, where the girls continued their training under the bombardment, as if to say to the world:
“Even if you turn us to ashes, we will remain roots that will grow again.” The Zionist war machine failed to break the resolve of these young women even after the destruction of their sports club. They continued their training on the open beach, on the soft sand, under the scorching sun that scorched their faces, stealing moments of hope and joy amidst an ocean of endless horrors and tragedies.
Even after the martyrdom of their heroine, Malak, her companions still train in the same spot on the beach, continuing their courageous defiance in the face of the destructive Zionist-American war machine. The short but luminous journey of the late heroine, Malak, teaches us profound human lessons.
First, women in the Muslim world live dignified and free lives, contrary to the misleading Western media propaganda machine. She also quietly exposed the silence of “feminist” organizations that scream when a Western girl is killed in a trivial incident.
We also learned that despite the abject poverty, harsh deprivation, and persistent hunger, there remains in Gaza a people who love life and carry in their hearts legitimate hopes, aspirations, and dreams… just like all the free peoples of the earth.
With Malak’s untimely passing, not only were the dreams of a promising girl buried, but a devastating blow was also dealt to all the noble human values that this hypocritical world so brags about. Malak departed to her Creator, but what remains is the shameful silence of international organizations, the blatant complicity of the international community, and the shame of the onlookers who have been content to play the role of passive observers.
Today, as Palestine is reduced to the numbers of victims, Malak reminds us that beneath every number lies a love story of life, a dream that was not killed because it became fuel for other dreams. Every morning, her companions return to the shore, punching the air as they punch the world’s pain, renewing their oath: That the land of Gaza will be watered either with the tears of survivors or the blood of martyrs.
As to that million-ton rocket? The Israeli who fired it may not have realized that by killing Malak, he had turned her fist into a legend that confounded his calculations: How could a highly sophisticated weapon be defeated by the determination of a girl whose dream had not yet been fulfilled?
This is a translated piece written by Ismail Al Sharif and published in the Arabic Addustour newspaper in Amman.
