Editor’s note: Tens of thousands of people rallied in Karachi, Pakistan over the weekend in the largest show of support yet for a 14-year-old girl who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman on Oct. 9 for speaking out about women’s rights. The shooting has sparked outrage within and outside of the country.
The shooting spurred Zaki Syed, a 24-year-old Pakistani-American rapper from Sacramento, Calif., to produce a video about the young activist Malala Yousafzai. Syed’s previous rap videos have been featured in Pakistani media in the United States and abroad. Syed began freestyle rapping at the age of 16. He has won regional and statewide poetry awards for his poems and spoken word. His spoken word and rap performances focus on social commentary, including growing up as a Muslim post-911, the Asian Tsunami, the floods in Bangladesh, and the Pakistani earthquake.
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