Bhubaneswar: Crippled by polio in infancy and riddled with bullets fired at her by Taliban terrorists on a university campus in Afghanistan, Breshna Musazai today is a shining testimony to the fact that the inner urge to learn and transform can defy every situation, including the threat of death.
Taliban terrorists, who stormed the campus of American University of Afghanistan, where Musazai was studying, pumped two bullets into her leg as she lay bleeding on the floor for six hours.
“I lay motionless to feign death till the police arrived and I received a third bullet in the crossfire that ensued. The police took me to hospital,” she narrated her ordeal during an interaction with students of the SOA (Deemed to be University) here on Friday.
Musazai met her father in the hospital who asked her not to worry. “Don’t worry my child, everything happens for a reason,” he comforted her.
Doctors said that she might lose her mobility, but she recovered after a hospital in Texas in US offered to treat her. “I stayed in the hospital for six months,” she said.
Referred to as the Malala Yousafzai of Afghanistan, Musazai today is a symbol of hope and women’s power worldwide. “People call me Malala and it is an honour (for me). She is a brave girl. If people are inspired by me, I’m grateful. But I will prefer to be known by my own name,” she said.
“In view of the danger to my life in Afghanistan, people wanted me to stay back in the US. But I wanted to come back and be a voice for those who aren’t heard,” Musazai said.
The programme was organized by the SUM Nursing College, the faculty of nursing of SOA, was also attended by Chairman of the International Youth Committee (IYC) Dr. K.K.Singh and Chief Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission of Maldives Dr. Aly Shameem.
Dr. Singh, who heads the IYC with one million members spread across 107 countries, said he came from a very poor family who found it difficult to make the ends meet.
Named as the most influential youth of 2017, Dr. Singh urged the students not to lose hope in any situation. “Try to do the job you are assigned as success or failure is secondary. You learn from your mistakes,” he said adding “if you can change yourself, you can change the society.”
Dr. Shameem spoke about the worldwide concern over the danger to Maldives, a tiny island, going under the water in view of the rise in sea level triggered by climate change. “It is apprehended that Maldives will disappear by 2050,” he said, adding the tiny island would be paying the price for global warming for which it was not responsible.
Musazai and the other two guests were felicitated by SOA on the occasion.
The Dean, SNC, Dr. Pravati Tripathy, Dean (Students’ Welfare) Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Additional Dean, SNC, Tapati Saha, Associate Dean Sasmita Das and senior faculty Pratibha Khosla were present.
