ISLAMABAD: “We are hoping to spread awareness of the importance of education, to inspire and motivate girls to go to school regardless of hurdles, to emphasize the strength of Pakistani women who choose education and to acknowledge the resilience of Pakistanis. Profits from book sales will go to charities benefiting girls’ education in Pakistan,” Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy told Arab News.
On World Book Day Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s SOC Outreach, a community engagement platform started by the award-winning director, announced they were releasing a novella written by Sanam Maher titled “Knowledge is Bulletproof,” and that the book would be bulletproof as well.
The 150-page story of Ramzan and Riaz, the other two schoolgirls who were shot alongside Malala Yousafzai and who today are tireless activists for education is bound in bulletproof materials, the first book of its kind.
Maher joined the project because of its unique premise and the story it promised to tell. This is the journalist’s first foray into book publishing, alongside her own first finished book.
“I got involved in the project when the artists behind it approached me with the idea. They had a very clear vision of what they hoped the campaign would achieve, and when they told me they wanted to work on something about the two girls who were also injured in the attack on Malala in 2012, I was immediately intrigued,” said Maher.
“I hadn’t seen much about the girls in the media -– even though, as I later discovered, they had been covered quite a bit in the British press -– and I relished the opportunity to tell their story. We have read and heard so much about Malala, and rightly so, but covering Shazia and Kainat’s story gave us the chance to look at Malala’s story from a slightly different perspective: these two girls were witnesses to an event that really brought home the brutality of the Pakistani Taliban to so many people, both within the country and abroad. I wondered what it would be like to be just slightly removed from the center of a story with such far-reaching interest and implications, just inches away from the girl we cannot stop looking at and wanting to know more about: Malala.”
The opportunity gave Maher the chance to meet the two attack survivors and understand the story known worldwide from their perspectives.
“I traveled to Mingora to meet Shazia and Kainat, and their families, with the photographer Insiya Syed. Shazia and Kainat were very keen to have their story told. We met them at a time that was stressful for them –- their visas to travel to the UK for further education had been rejected and they were waiting for word on their appeals -– but they were very generous with their time. Don’t worry, their story ultimately has a happy ending, and it was so moving to be there at a moment when their lives were going to change. I’m so excited for them to read the book and to hear their thoughts on it.”
In collaboration with BBDO (advertising agency) they plan to print a number of the books and have the proceeds of the sales go toward rebuilding schools in Northern Pakistan where areas were particularly affected by the presence of the Taliban.
“The initial thought was to tell the inspiring story of Shazia and Kainat, and how they braved it through the violence and continued to fight for girls’ education. The design of the book cover being bulletproof was a natural and relevant extension of the message ‘Knowledge is Bulletproof’,” said Chinoy.
“The goal was to be impactful not only with the story that had to be told, but also with the design of the book itself. It made perfect sense to use material that is symbolic of the brave resistance that the girls so admirably demonstrated. To show that knowledge is indeed bulletproof, it was thus ideal to design an actual bulletproof cover for the book,” said Maher.
This book will be the first of its kind, a novel encased in bulletproof materials to enable those reading it or encountering it to understand the message of the pages clearly.
“I thought it was a wonderfully impactful way to get people to sit up and take notice,” continues Maher. “Once you meet the girls, and so many other girls and women in Swat and other parts of the country who are all striving to complete their education despite the odds stacked against them, the message that the book’s design carries becomes even more important. The book’s design and the idea at its heart — it cannot and must not be enough for Pakistani women to rely on luck or chance or privilege in order to receive an education that will carry them forward — came together beautifully. It was a pleasure to be involved in a project where every element of the final product was so thoughtful and considered the nuances of Shazia and Kainat’s story.”
And though SOC Outreach, Chinoy and Maher hope the campaign and the book bring them results to continue their good work, there is also hope for Maher that these projects are needed less and less.
“I do hope that people will be interested in the campaign and there will be many, many more projects dealing with the subject of access to education, particularly for women in Pakistan. I also hope that there will be a time when the need for such projects will be obsolete.”
‘Knowledge is Bulletproof’: A bulletproof book for education
‘Knowledge is Bulletproof’: A bulletproof book for education
- Sanam Maher and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s SOC Outreach teamed up to produce a one-of-a kind novella, “Knowledge is Bulletproof,” which tells the story of activists Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz, who were shot alongside Malala Yousafzai but survived
- The book is bound in bulletproof materials, a significant move by the producers
What We Are Reading Today: Frogs of the World: A Guide to Every Family
Authors: Mark O’Shea & Simon Maddock
With more than 7,600 known species, frogs exhibit an extraordinary range of forms and behaviors, from those that produce toxins so deadly that they could kill a human many times over to those that can survive being frozen in ice.
“Frogs of the World” is an essential guide to this astonishingly diverse group of animals. An in-depth introduction covers everything from the origins and evolution of frogs to their life cycles and defense strategies.
What We Are Reading Today: Sixty Miles Upriver
Author: Richard E. Ocejo
Newburgh is a small postindustrial city of some 28,000 people located 60 miles north of New York City in the Hudson River Valley.
Like many similarly sized cities across America, it has been beset with poverty and crime after decades of decline, with few opportunities for its predominantly minority residents.
“Sixty Miles Upriver” tells the story of how Newburgh started gentrifying, describing what happens when White creative professionals seek out racially diverse and working-class communities and revealing how gentrification is increasingly happening outside large city centers in places where it unfolds in new ways.
What We Are Reading Today: A Death in the Rainforest
Author: Don Kulick
As a young anthropologist, Don Kulick went to the tiny village of Gapun in New Guinea to document the death of the native Tayap, an endangered Papuan language.
“A Death in the Rainforest” takes readers inside the village, revealing what it is like to live in a place carved out like a cleft in the middle of a tropical rainforest.
This book offers insight into the impact of white society on the farthest reaches of the globe — and the story of why this anthropologist realized finally that he had to give up his study of this language and this village.
An engaging, deeply perceptive, and brilliant interrogation of what it means to study a culture, the book takes readers into a world that endures in the face of massive changes, one that is on the verge of disappearing forever.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Moon That Turns You Back’
- The book contains various poems, some experimental, some soaked in grief, some documenting the mundane, but always with a purpose. She perhaps sums it best when she writes: “I remember so you can forget”
Author: Hala Alyan
The first time I heard Palestinian-American artist Hala Alyan speak was when she acted in the starring role in Lebanese-American filmmaker Darine Hotait’s 2015 short film, “I Say Dust.”
In those 15 minutes of beautifully shot frames, you visually travel through time, space and various emotional states as Alyan leads the way.
Both Hotait and Alyan were deliberate in showcasing their Arab-centric stories of belonging and identity. Alyan’s fierce eyes were kind but intense on the screen; her movement was soft but firm and when she spoke, she left you speechless — but in the best way.
In the film, she was the epitome of poetry, and now you can explore Alyan’s words further with her latest work, a book of poetry titled, “The Moon That Turns You Back,” which was published in March this year.
For the past decade or so, Alyan has explored stories of complexities of identity and the impact of displacement, especially in relation to the Palestinian diaspora. In this latest collection, her writing takes us through Brooklyn, Beirut, Palestine and places that exist in between or in fragmented memories.
Alyan said that she does not have just one middle name, she has six, and not a single one of those are her mother’s. She writes evocative and concize lines such as “A city full of men still has a mother,” and “every time I tell the story, I warp it,” and her poetry is vividly descriptive with lines such as “lipstick like a sliced finger.” She also writes relatable lines such as “I’m terrible at parties, secrets and money,” and “a body is a calendar of breaths.”
The book contains various poems, some experimental, some soaked in grief, some documenting the mundane, but always with a purpose. She perhaps sums it best when she writes: “I remember so you can forget.”
Alyan is an adjunct assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University after earning her doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. She has also published several novels and well-received essays. She won the Arab American Book Award in 2013 and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2018.
What We Are Reading Today: Plankton: A Worldwide Guide
Authors: Tom Jackson & Jennifer Parker
“Plankton” are the unsung heroes of planet Earth. Passive drifters through the world’s seas, oceans, and freshwater environments, most are invisible or very small, but some are longer than a whale. They are the global ocean’s foundation food, supporting almost all oceanic life, and they are also vitally important for land-based plants, animals, and other organisms. “Plankton” provides an incomparable look at these remarkable creatures, opening a window on the elegance and grace of microscopic marine life.
