Meet Dr. Gulalai Wali Khan from Pakistan.
On August 9, 2010, Dr. Gulalai Wali Khan was leaving her health clinic in the crowded Karachi Market in Khyber Bazaar when a gunman on motorcycle fired three bullets at her, one of which hit her in the arm. How the gunman, at such close range, managed not to kill her is a mystery.
What wasn’t a mystery is why Gulalai was targeted.
Just a day after she was shot, the Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. The reason? One simple word: bloodlines.
Gulalai grew up in a prosperous political family in Peshawar, a valley region near the Pak-Afghan border. Gulalai’s grandfather was Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the “Frontier Gandhi” for his non-violent opposition to British Rule and close friendship to Mohandas Gandhi. Gulalai’s father, President of the Awami National Party (a leftist, secular party), spent eight years in jails.
Gulalai’s brother, also a politician, was President of the Awami National Party (ANP) at the time Gulalai was attacked. The ANP, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, publically opposed the Taliban. Consequently, the Taliban began targeting first the party’s members, then its members’ blood relations.
Gulalai made the decision to leave everything behind to keep her children safe. “I worked three quarters of my life working toward a career that really mattered to me, and yet it took me a split second to walk away when the decision came down to my career or motherhood.”
Read more about Gulalai’s clandestine escape from Pakistan with her three sons and her views on the practice of medicine in America in Flavors from Home.
On August 9, 2010, Dr. Gulalai Wali Khan was leaving her health clinic in the crowded Karachi Market in Khyber Bazaar when a gunman on motorcycle fired three bullets at her, one of which hit her in the arm. How the gunman, at such close range, managed not to kill her is a mystery.
What wasn’t a mystery is why Gulalai was targeted.
Just a day after she was shot, the Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. The reason? One simple word: bloodlines.
Gulalai grew up in a prosperous political family in Peshawar, a valley region near the Pak-Afghan border. Gulalai’s grandfather was Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the “Frontier Gandhi” for his non-violent opposition to British Rule and close friendship to Mohandas Gandhi. Gulalai’s father, President of the Awami National Party (a leftist, secular party), spent eight years in jails.
Gulalai’s brother, also a politician, was President of the Awami National Party (ANP) at the time Gulalai was attacked. The ANP, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, publically opposed the Taliban. Consequently, the Taliban began targeting first the party’s members, then its members’ blood relations.
Gulalai made the decision to leave everything behind to keep her children safe. “I worked three quarters of my life working toward a career that really mattered to me, and yet it took me a split second to walk away when the decision came down to my career or motherhood.”
Read more about Gulalai’s clandestine escape from Pakistan with her three sons and her views on the practice of medicine in America in Flavors from Home.
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