Unlike now-famous Malala Yousafzai, the name of Nabila Rehman,
another Pakistani young girl who along with her father Rafiq and 13 years old
brother Zubair, travelled from her North Waziristan village to appear before
members of Congress and urge the US to end its drone attacks, haven’t found any
place in the pages of any mainstream media. On October 24, 2012 a Predator
drone flying over North Waziristan came upon eight-year-old Nabila Rehman, her
siblings, and their grandmother as they worked in a field beside their village
home. Her grandmother, Momina Bibi, was teaching the children how to pick okra
as the family prepared for the coming Eid holiday. However on this day the
terrible event would occur that would forever alter the course of this family's
life. In the sky the children suddenly heard the distinctive buzzing sound
emitted by the CIA-operated drones - a familiar sound to those in the rural
Pakistani villages which are stalked by them 24 hours a day - followed by two
loud clicks. The unmanned aircraft released its deadly payload onto the Rehman
family, and in an instant the lives of these children were transformed into a
nightmare of pain, confusion and terror. Seven children were wounded, and
Nabila's grandmother was killed before her eyes, an act for which no apology,
explanation or justification has ever been given. This past week Nabila, her
schoolteacher father, and her 12-year-old brother traveled to Washington DC to
tell their story and to seek answers about the events of that day. However,
despite overcoming incredible obstacles in order to travel from their remote
village to the United States, Nabila and her family were roundly ignored. At
the congressional hearing where they gave testimony, only five out of 430
representatives showed up. In the words of Nabila's father to those few who did
attend: "My daughter does not have the face of a terrorist and neither did
my mother. It just doesn't make sense to me, why this happened… as a teacher, I
wanted to educate Americans and let them know my children have been
injured." The translator broke down in tears while recounting their story.
But the United States made it a point to snub this family and ignore the tragedy
it had caused to them. Nabila, a slight girl of nine with striking hazel eyes,
asked a simple question in her testimony: "What did my grandmother do
wrong?" There was no one to answer this question, and few who cared to
even listen. Symbolic of the utter contempt in which the government holds the
people it claims to be liberating, while the Rehmans recounted their plight,
Barack Obama was spending the same time meeting with the CEO of weapons
manufacturer Lockheed Martin. It is useful to contrast the American response to
Nabila Rehman with that of Malala Yousafzai, a young girl who was nearly
assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban. While Malala was feted by Western media
figures, politicians and civic leaders for her heroism, Nabila has become
simply another one of the millions of nameless, faceless people who have had
their lives destroyed over the past decade of American wars. The reason for
this glaring discrepancy is obvious. Since Malala was a victim of the Taliban,
she, despite her protestations, was seen as a potential tool of political
propaganda to be utilized by war advocates. She could be used as the human face
of their effort, a symbol of the purported decency of their cause, the type of
little girl on behalf of whom the United States and its allies can say they
have been unleashing such incredible bloodshed. Tellingly, many of those who
took up her name and image as a symbol of the justness of American military
action in the Muslim world did not even care enough to listen to her own words
or feelings about the subject. Western fawning over Malala has become less
about her efforts to improve conditions for girls in Pakistan, or certainly
about the struggles of millions of girls in Pakistan, and more about our own
desire to make ourselves feel warm and fuzzy with a celebrity and an easy
message. It's a way of letting ourselves off the hook, convincing ourselves
that it's simple matter of good guys vs bad guys, that we're on the right side
and that everything is okay. But where does Nabila fit into this picture? If
extrajudicial killings, drone strikes and torture are in fact all part of a
just-cause associated with the liberation of the people of Pakistan,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, where is the sympathy or even simple recognition for
the devastation this war has caused to countless little girls such as her? The
answer is clear: The only people to be recognized for their suffering in this
conflict are those who fall victim to the enemy. Malala for her struggles was
to be made the face of the American war effort - against her own will if
necessary - while innumerable little girls such as Nabila will continue to be
terrorized and murdered as part of this war without end. There will be no
celebrity appearances or awards ceremonies for Nabila. At her testimony almost
no one even bothered to attend. But if they had attended, they would've heard a
nine-year-old girl asking the questions which millions of other innocent people
who have had their lives thrown into chaos over the past decade have been
asking: "When I hear that they are going after people who have done wrong
to America, then what have I done wrong to them? What did my grandmother do
wrong to them? I didn't do anything wrong." Zubair recounted how he was
hit by shrapnel in his leg — an injury that would take expensive laser
surgeries to heal — while Nabila looked down to see her hand bleeding. "I
tried to bandage my hand but the blood wouldn't stop," she said. "The
blood kept coming." Momina Bibi's wounds were so severe that neighbours
would not allow her sons to see the body, said Rafiq, a primary-school teacher
in Pakistan who was away in town when the attack happened. Rafiq said the
newspapers reported that fighters had been killed in the strike. As far as he
knows, his mother’s was the death. The Rehman family also participated in an
Amnesty International report about casualties of drones. According to the
London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 376 total strikes have taken
place in Pakistan, killing up to 926 civilians and as many as 200 children. In
2009, the first year of Obama’s administration, there were 51 reported drone
bombings in Pakistan—there were 45 during the entire GeorgeW. Bush
administration. Obama’s use of drones has increased since. Obama has unleashed
284 drone attacks on Pakistan alone. Between 2,532 and 3,251 people have been
killed by drone bombings in Pakistan since 2004, most of them in the Obama
years. At least 175 of them have been children. In June 2011, Obama ordered the
U.S. to extend its drone bomb attacks to include Somalia. Since 2002, there
have been hundreds of drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia,
and perhaps other countries. Thousands have been killed. So I want the readers
of this blog to be aware of the stories of children like Nabila and Zubair, who
unlike Malala Yousafzai, were and still being attacked, not by the Taliban or
al-Qaeda, but by the United States of America.
RUDRA SEN
