The Pen is Mightier than the Sword! Or, Why Opening a Dialogue is Vital to Influencing Social Change

The famous phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword” was written by British playwright and novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, in his play Cardinal Richelieu. In this play, “Richelieu, chief minister to King Louis XIII, discovers a plot to kill him, but as a priest he is unable to take up arms against his enemies. His page, Francois, points out: But now, at your command are other weapons, my good Lord. Richelieu agrees: The pen is mightier than the sword... Take away the sword; States can be saved without it!” The phrase made an instant impact on the world, and by the 1840’s it was a commonplace saying. This phrase, which emphasizes that "thinking and writing have more influence on people and events than the use of force or violence", has always struck a chord with me.

This idea was not necessarily a new one; before Bulwer-Lytton’s 1839 play, this idea had flourished for centuries. Susan Ratcliffe, associate editor of the Oxford Quotations Dictionaries, states that “Robert Burton, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, published in the early 17th Century, describes how bitter jests and satire can cause distress - and he suggests that "A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword"… A similar phrase appears in George Whetstone's Heptameron of Civil Discourses, published in 1582, states ‘the dash of a pen is more grievous than the counter use of a lance’.”

This idea continues to resonate with people, that the written word can be mightier than physical force or military power. As someone who works in legislation, both in the public sector and the non-profit sector, this is an extremely important concept to my personal ideology. I am not naive; I know that there are times when physical force or military action are needed. However, I do think that both of these instances can and should be occurring less often than they do. I believe, whole heartedly, that in most cases, spoken or written words are more successful than the use of force. This is definitely the ideology behind my legislative beliefs, as I truly believe that informed policy and legislation have the power to make a positive impact on individuals, communities, states, countries, and even on a global level. I believe in the power of words. Written. Spoken. Thought. I think that they are our most powerful weapons in the fight against evil, hatred, and injustice.

But I’m going to add something to this, and apply this same principle: DIALOGUE. 

What is dialogue?

What many people think about dialogue refers to the meaning of ‘dialogue’ as a noun, as the “conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie”. But what I’m referring to, is the meaning of ‘dialogue’ as a verb; "Dialogue is to take part in a conversation or discussion to resolve a problem".

Why is dialogue so important?

The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) states that “dialogue is one of the primary components within the broader definition of peacebuilding. The goal of dialogue is to develop joint approaches to conflict resolution, as well as improve relationships, understanding, and trust between individuals or groups in conflict with one another. Dialogue processes consist of bringing together [people] from across the conflict divide in order to develop an improved understanding of the concerns, interests, and needs of the other side.”

Author Scott London writes that “we speak at each other, or past each other. We speak different conceptual languages, hold different values, embody different ways of seeing the world. Much of the time, we're not even listening to each other at all. The dialogue is a monologue… The trouble with much of what passes for communication today is that it's all crosstalk. It's a din, not a dialogue.” He continues to write “The word dialogue is often contrasted with monologue, as if it were a two-way, rather than a one-way, process. But that's misleading. Dialogue is a contraction from the Greek words for through and words. It suggests an activity aimed at eliciting meaning.. That's what dialogue is: a form of discussion aimed at fostering mutual insight and common purpose. The process involves listening with empathy, searching for common ground, exploring new ideas and perspectives, and bringing unexamined assumptions into the open.”

London continues to state that “while dialogue is often confused with other forms of discourse, it belongs in a distinctive category of its own. Unlike debate, it doesn't involve arguing for a point of view, defending a set of assumptions, or critiquing the positions of others. Unlike negotiation or consensus-building, it's not a method of reaching agreement or arriving at decisions. And unlike discussion, it can only emerge when participants trust and respect each other, suspend their judgments, and listen deeply to all points of view.”

How is dialogue achieved?

London states the basic rules for facilitating a dialogue:

• The focus is on common interests, not divisive ones 
• The dialogue and decision-making processes are separated 
• Assumptions that can lead to distortions of certain points of view are clarified and brought into the open 
• People are encouraged to reveal their own insights and assumptions before speculating on those of others 
• Concrete examples are used to raise general issues 
• The process focuses on conflicts between value systems, not people 
• When appropriate, participants are encouraged to express emotions accompanying strongly held values 
• Participants err on the side of including people who disagree 
• They encourage relationships in order to humanize transactions 
• They minimize the level of mistrust before pursuing practical objectives. 

Dialogue is not easy. Especially when the topics are things  we feel very strongly about. And in order to achieve this reality where people respect each other, suspend their judgments, and actively listen to all points of view, we have construct safe places, not just physically, but emotionally.

The GPPAC writes that “confidence building measures are a crucial component of a dialogue process. Confidence building measures are aimed at providing a safe and neutral space for parties to be able to engage with each other on issues related to a particular conflict. Confidence building measures are aimed at reducing tensions, creating mutual understanding and identifying entry points and channels for possible cooperation across conflict divides.”

The University of Missouri’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity department released a how-to document titled “Guide to Facilitating Dialogues”, which states that in order for a dialogue to be successful, participants need to:

1. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
2. Withhold judgements; when in doubt, ask.
3. Honor and share “airtime”.
4. Be respectful to others.
5. Listen actively and intentionally.
6. Speak from personal experience using “I” statements.
7. Ask “genuine questions” for understanding.
8. Respect Confidentiality.
9. Maintain an open mind about the process and content.

We need to be good listeners.

This is perhaps the toughest part of true dialogue. University of Missouri states that there are four types of listening: Appreciative listening (e.g. listening for pleasure or enjoyment), Empathic listening (e.g. listening to provide emotional support for the speaker), Comprehensive listening (e.g. listening to understand the message of the speaker), and Critical listening (e.g. listening to evaluate a message for purposes of accepting or rejecting it). In dialogue, it’s imperative that we engage in comprehensive listening. To become a better listener, we need to take listening seriously, resist distractions, refrain from speaking for others, focus our listening, and suspend judgement.

London believes that “when done well, the benefits can be extraordinary. Long-standing stereotypes can be dissolved, mistrust overcome, and visions shaped and grounded in a shared sense of purpose. People previously at odds with one another can come into alignment on objectives and strategies. New perspectives and insights can be gained, new levels of creativity stimulated, and bonds of community strengthened”.

So why am I talking about this on a feminist blog??

Well, hopefully the answer to this question has already buzzed to life in your mind. A main portion of my feminist ideology is my belief in the importance of dialogue to solve social issues. I think that a good majority of conflicts we currently have could be resolved with the facilitation of true dialogue. Again, I am not naive, so I understand that this is not an easy fete. Maybe most people would consider this a “pipe dream”. Yeah, that would be nice, but it’s not realistic. And I’d have to agree with those people, in the sense that right now, in our current culture, it isn’t realistic, because we do not currently know how to listen to each other. And respecting others, that’s another Everest to climb. But just because something isn’t realistic now, does that mean we just give up? Does that mean we just through our hands in the air and say, Whelp! Might as well go home, sit back on the couch, and tune out the ugliness of the world. I don’t accept that. I can’t accept that.

I can’t accept the world as it is, when I know it could be so much better, for everyone living in it. Just because something is hard, doesn’t make it any less worthwhile. To everyone except Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, climbing Everest was unrealistic because no one had done it before. But with patience, drive, and tenacity, they became the first climbers to ever make it to the top of Mount Everest in 1953. Since then, more than 4,000 people have made it to the top. What was once an unrealistic pipe dream has now become reality for so many people, and that number only continues to grow. What is unconquerable is only unconquerable until it is conquered.

We can make true change. We, each of us individually and collectively, have real power. WE CAN MAKE AN IMPACT. By using our voices, by writing, by listening, we can make positive changes to our society.

The pen, the voice, the listening ears, are truly mightier than the sword.


References

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30729480

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword?q=the-pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword

http://www.scottlondon.com/articles/ondialogue.html

https://diversity.missouri.edu/education/handouts/facilitating-dialogue.pdf

#WCW Feminist Profile: Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, who received the award at just 17 years old, though she is perhaps more famously known as the young Pakistani girl that was shot in the head by a Taliban assassin on the bus traveling home from school. She was just 15 when this happened, and she ended up making a full recovery, and continuing to advocate for girls’ education around the globe, and especially in her home country. 

Malala, an activist for female education, was born on July 12, 1997 in Mingora, Swat, Pakistan. Her family is Sunni Muslim of Pashtun ethnicity; Malala was named after a Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and female warrior from southern Afghanistan, who rallied local fighters against the British troops at the 1880 Battle of Maiwand. Malala was born to Ziauddin and Tor, and has two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal. She was educated primarily by her father, Ziauddin, who was also an education activist, private school owner and teacher, and poet. 

During her childhood, the Taliban occupied Swat, a district in Pakistan, and at one point, prohibited girls from going to school and receiving an education. In 2008, at just 11 years old, Malala spoke at the Peshawar Press Club in the capitol city. She is quoted by journalists covering the conference as saying "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" In 2009, Malala started at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's Open Minds Pakistan youth program, where she worked as a trainee and later a peer educator, working in schools across her region to help her young peers engage in constructive discussion on social issues through journalism, public debate, and dialogue.

Simultaneously, in 2008, Malala was asked to be an anonymous blogger through BBC’s Urdu, and report about the Taliban’s occupation and her experiences as a young woman in school under those circumstances. Even though the offer was dangerous, her father, who had been helping the BBC find a volunteer, then offered the position to Malala, although she was four years younger than the other girls they’d sought after. She was only in 7th grade at the time. BBC accepted, as did Malala, and she began publishing blog posts under a pseudonym. By 2009, the Taliban had destroyed most of the girls’ schools, and had threatened more destruction and terror; Malala’s school was shut down, and by January 15, 2009, all girls were banned from attending school. 

By the end of that year, however, her pseudonym was leaked and Malala started receiving death threats, while war broke out all around them. She was uprooted from her home and sent to live with relatives while her home town was under attack once again.

Malala served as the chair of the District Child Assembly of the Khpal Kor Foundation from 2009 to 2010. In October 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African activist, nominated her for the International Children's Peace Prize of the Dutch international children's advocacy group KidsRights Foundation. She was the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award. The announcement said, "Malala dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to go to school." However, she didn't win. But this was only the beginning…

On December 19, 2011, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani awarded her the National Peace Award for Youth. By 2012, she was organizing the Malala Education Foundation, which would help poor girls go to school and receive an education. Malala was gaining recognition and  support. Because of this, in the summer of 2012, the leaders of the Taliban unanimously voted that Malala needed to be killed in order to regain control. 

On October 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman entered her bus on her way home from school and shot Malala in the head. The bullet traveled from near her left eye, through her neck, and into her shoulder near her spinal cord. After receiving emergency surgery to immediately reduce the swelling in the left side of her brain, the doctors removed the bullet after 5 intensive hours. Malala was eventually transported to England, where she received further treatment.

Mala writes about this experience, saying “In October 2012, on my way home from school, a masked gunman boarded my school bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” He shot me on the left side of my head. I woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. The doctors and nurses told me about the attack — and that people around the world were praying for my recovery.”

On October 17, 2012 she woke up from her coma and continued to make a miraculous recovery. On November 11, she underwent an 8 hour surgery to repair her facial nerves.

On 15 October 2012, UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister, visited Yousafzai while she was in the hospital, and launched a petition in her name and "in support of what Malala fought for". Using the slogan "I am Malala", the petition's main demand was that there be no child left out of school by 2015, with the hope that "girls like Malala everywhere will soon be going to school". Brown said he would hand the petition to President Zardari in Islamabad in November. 

The petition contains three demands:
We call on Pakistan to agree to a plan to deliver education for every child.
We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls.
We call on international organizations to ensure the world's 61 million out-of-school children are in education by the end of 2015.

In January of 2013, she was finally released from the hospital. Later, on Malala’s 16th birthday, July 12, 2013, she spoke at the UN, calling for worldwide access to education; the UN dubbed the event "Malala Day". It was her first public speech since she had been attacked and shot by the Taliban. At one point during her speech, she said:

The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born ... I am not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I'm here to speak up for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists… Malala day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights.

On October 10, 2014, Malala was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Having received the prize at the age of 17, she is the youngest Nobel laureate.

Malala writes: "It was then I knew I had a choice: I could live a quiet life or I could make the most of this new life I had been given. I determined to continue my fight until every girl could go to school. With my father, who has always been my ally and inspiration, I established Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses."

On July 12, 2015, her 18th birthday, Malala opened a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees. The school, funded by the non-profit Malala Fund, offers education and training to girls aged 14 to 18 years. She then called on world leaders to invest in "books, not bullets".

As of 2018, Malala is now studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. She writes: “Every day I fight to ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education. I travel to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination to go to school. Malala Fund is working so that their stories, like mine, can be heard around the world. We invest in developing country educators and activists, like my father, through Malala Fund’s Gulmakai Network. And we hold leaders accountable for their promises to girls. With more than 130 million girls out of school today, there is more work to be done. I hope you will join my fight for education and equality. Together, we can create a world where all girls can learn and lead.”

Malala has been an incredible inspiration to me. She has fought and survived more than I can even imagine. She has lived through war, lived through an assassination attempt, all before she was 15 years old. And she didn’t let her experiences break her. In 2013, she wrote her memoir called “I Am Malala”, which was so beautiful and heart shattering, but so vital to our day and age. Malala’s courage and bravery seeps through every word, every page, and drastically impacted me more than anything had in a long time. Her next book, titled We Are Displaced: True Stories of Refugee Lives, comes out on Sept. 4th, 2018, and I CANNOT WAIT TO READ IT! Seriously, I’m not doing anything until I finish that book! 

You can learn more about the Malala Fund by following this link https://www.malala.org/ where you can also donate to the non-profit, and feel good about helping an organization that funds safe, quality, and free secondary education for girls in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria, Brazil, and India.