Late Her Fly, a Twitter space with Ziauddin Yousafzai

In patriarchal societies, every woman is fortunate to have a man who can allow her to live her life as she pleases instead of asserting her right over it.

Let him fulfill his dreams and help him where he needs them. A woman who is able to have such a man, her life becomes a little easier than other women. Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai is one such woman. Her father Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai did not assert his rights over her life but allowed her to live as she wanted. Let them dream, as they wish. Let them fulfill those dreams, as they wanted to fulfill them.

The effect of this is that Malala of Swat, who might have died a life of obscurity after living a life of obscurity, is today known all over the world by her first name. It is an honor bestowed on very few people in the world. Today, Malala has become a powerful voice, knocking on every door in the world and demanding the right of girls to education.

How did Ziauddin Yousafzai do all this? He has given the answer in his book Let Every Fly, which was published in November 2018. I have wanted to read this book for a long time, but I just didn't get the chance. When I finally read the book last month, I wanted to have a meeting with Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai.

When I mentioned it to a friend, he too became excited. We're both very active on the Twitter space, a new feature of Twitter. Twitter space allows Twitter users to communicate with each other by voice. We planned to invite Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai to the space and the next day we followed suit and sent him a message on Twitter.

Although we did not expect an answer. We still waited for their response. We had invited him but were wondering what he might be interested in in a small space session? Contrary to our expectations, not only did they see our message but they also responded by joining us in space. We asked them the day and time, and they left it to us. We invited them in after consultation at 8 pm next week.

In space, we had a lot to ask and they had a lot to tell. He was repeatedly apologizing for his over-speaking, which we were ashamed of. We told them there was no need to apologize. We were all there to hear them.

Ziauddin Yousafzai told us in this space that people ask him what he did, which made Malala a world leader from an ordinary girl in Swat. "I tell them, don't ask me what I did," he said. Ask me what I didn't do? I didn't cut it.

We asked them how they came up with the idea to write a book. He said that it was Malala who inspired him to write the book. He told them to publish their story in book form. It was only later that he began writing his book in collaboration with Louis Carpenter, a journalist.

His book Let Every Fly is a story of learning something new every day and forgetting the wrong values ​​already learned. He had noticed the difference between himself and his sisters in his childhood. When he got married, he and his wife, Tor Paki, laid the foundation of a house in which all the inhabitants were equal and in which there was no passage of patriarchal customs and attitudes.

We asked them that it is very difficult to build such a house in a patriarchal society and to protect its occupants from falling prey to patriarchy. During this time, acquaintances leave, get angry, put pressure on. How did they endure all this? He said he kept only those close to him and his family who respected his views. They chose their children over society and then their journey became easier.

Someone even asked them about their sons. He has written a chapter on his sons in his book, in which he bravely admits that his eldest son Khushal had complained about his inattention to his friend. After moving to the UK, he had a hard time adapting to the environment there. He told Space that he consulted a doctor and changed his parenting style to solve his problems.

Listening to them, I realized that in a patriarchal society, it is difficult, but not impossible, for a man to have a female partner. It is a continuous process, whatever one wants to do, one can do and what one does not want to do, one just keeps looking for excuses. Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai trained himself, setting aside tricks. For this, he learned from what he could, whether it was his wife, daughter, or son. He did not hesitate to do so. He acknowledged this many times in his book and in our space session. That is what makes them unique.

His book Let Every Fly is now available in Urdu. There are simple words written in simple language, which immediately sink into the heart of the one who feels it.