Hazel was an innocent girl born in a modern city of a third world country- Pakistan,
where not every child goes to school, and has big dreams. On the day of her birth, her
parents were happy like every other parent and wanted to provide her the best
resources for growth and education as possible. But, as Hazel grew up to the age of 4,
she didn’t want to go to school because classroom life and study was very boring for
her, and she didn’t want to socialize with people.
At this stage, every parent forces the child to go to school, because they know that
this is good for them. Some beat their young ones, and others drag them towards
school classrooms, then run away leaving their innocent pupils screaming and crying
in their separation. But surprisingly, Hazel’s parents didn’t do any of such things which
allowed the intellect and confidence of Hazel to grow to such a level that she became
a prestigious researcher and writer in future. What did Hazel do? They had visited
every prestigious school of the city, hoping that Hazel may like any of it. Hazel spent
one day in each school, and finally she didn’t like any of them.
She told her final decision to her Mom.
“I will not go to school.”
And she was afraid that her Mom would do the same to her what her friend Hania’s
mother did. But again, her parents were different from other societies. Her mom was a
teacher in a private elite school, where not every child can get admission. Hazel used
to see her siblings going there and she also wanted to go with them.
But as school was far from the city, and Hazel’s mom didn’t want to make her little girl
tired after long travels, she preferred nearby school for her.
But, why Hazel rejected every school and only chose her mom’s school? Not because
they weren’t good, or the building was old, or the teachers were rude. No. Everything
was ok. But her mother and siblings weren’t there.
She didn’t want to stay away from her family. And its a normal healthy trait of a four
year old kid. Psychological researchers say that a child must not be separated from
her mom till the age of 7 because this is a critical age for child’s physical and mental
growth. He needs mother’s love and affection for the healthy growth of his mind. In this
age, a child learns love, empathy and care for others, which is very lacking in our
modern society.
On the other hand, if a child is deprived of love or exposed to any kind of trauma or
negative emotion in this age, his brain growth will be damaged and dangerous
consequences will remain throughout his life.
Most of the serial killers and gangsters didn’t get love from their parents in this age.
Therefore, they didn’t have a healthy psychological growth to perform well in society.
In reality, every kid is born intelligent, and he stands for his rights. He cries when don’t
see her mom in front of his eyes, and resists going away from her. He weeps and
screams when you take his toy from him. He knows how to love and no one has the
right to take his loved ones away from him.
Lets keep going forward in the story of Hazel to know which traits an intelligent person
has, that our society hates and therefore, they suppress the intellectual growth from
the day a child enters school.
Trait 1: They stand for their rights confidently
The most seemingly harmless way to kill the child’s intellect is to separate him from his
mother without his consent or force him to do the things he doesn’t want. Prophet
Muhammad S.A.W. forbade parents from forcing a child to even pray Salah before the
age of 10.
Prayer, which is the most important pillar of Islam can’t be forced on the child at this
age, then how can going to school be? I know school and education is important for a
child but we can do it by homeschooling first and developing a love of education in
him, so that he goes to school with his own will.
Forcing anything on the child before the age of 10 is prohibited in Islam for a healthy
growth of his intellect and naturally a child of this age knows how to stand for his
rights. If he doesn’t want anything he will do his best to reject it. Like Hazel rejected
going to school.
But, our society doesn’t like confident and intelligent people. Because if they exist,
then how can society force their laws upon them, how can corporations and
governments control the masses if they remain standing for their rights and justice. So,
you must block their intellect from an early age and make them a decent obedient
person whom you can control for your benefit.
When parents force a child to wake up, go to school at this age, firstly he resists at his
best, but after constant enforcement, he feels traumatised and helpless. This hinders
his intellectual capabilities and we lose future scientists, philosophers, artists and
writers rather than a worker mind who will only follow actions of the powerful and
never stand for his rights.
Hazel’s friend Hania was one of them. She used to cry and scream in class all the time,
and no one literally cared. She missed her mother a lot.
On the other hand, Hazel got admission in her mother’s school and she was quite
happy. After arrival from school she never opened the books of school, and her
parents never forced her to study. Still, she was getting A Grade in her class, as she
studied with focus there, and used to complete her homework in school so that she
can play and enjoy the rest of the day at home.
Hazel’s mother used to take story books for her which she and her siblings read and
enjoyed.
But her friend Hania, she went to tuition after school, where a strict teacher used to
beat children if they didn’t complete work in time. Fear kills intelligence and
confidence. So, Hania used to get B Grade after all the effort, and wasn’t happy with
her life.
Trait 2: They Question the Power
When Hazel was in Grade 2, one day, a teacher came into science class and began
teaching that the Sun revolves around the Earth. No one from the students spoke but
Hazel. She stood and said, “Teacher, we have studied that Earth revolves around the
Sun.” Which the teacher denied. Then Hazel opened her science book and showed it
to the teacher which got her furious because how can a 7 year old kid correct her?
She has a threat of ego and status. So, she slapped Hazel’s face to cover up her lack
of knowledge.
Hazel was standing there in a daze. What wrong did she do? For which mistake she
was slapped? Even if she had talked very respectfully to the teacher. After the voice of
slap, the whole class started laughing and making fun of her. This is the social
embarrassment that trains a child to not use his brain and remain dumb.
Being a teacher is a big responsibility and a prestigious duty. But, nowadays most
people are in this profession to make our kids dumber.
By this, they kill critical thinking, reasoning and counter argument, and encourage
blind belief in whatever is being told to you. Hazel used to question everything being
told to her. If her mother tells her to turn off the gas, she asks why? What if we do not
turn it off? Why is the sky blue? Why do older people have white hair and we have
black?
And everyone gets irritated by her questions except her mother.
Her friends believed in the tooth fairy, but she used to ask her mom, “Who is the tooth
fairy?” “Where does she come from?” “Why we born? And what happens after death?”
She nearly asked everything. And, after every argument and question, she got social
embarrassment, and was made fun of. It happens to most of the children, and at the
end they stop questioning to get accepted by the society.
Intelligent people don’t accept ideas just because they are traditional, popular, or
imposed by authority. They ask why and who benefits.
Historically, thinkers like Socrates were punished not for crimes, but for questioning
society’s assumptions. Power structures feel threatened when obedience is replaced
by critical thinking.
Trait 3: They give suggestions if find something wrong
After the slap from the science teacher, she got another slap from the math teacher
also. Why? One day, her social studies teacher was absent, so the math teacher got 2
periods. One before break and one after break. In the before break period, the teacher
announced that she will take a test after the break.
So, she said to the teacher in a very respectful manner, “Mam, this is a very short time,
there should be at least one day for preparation of the test.”
But again, correcting power and status is a big crime in our society. So the teacher
replied, “I have not asked for suggestions from you.” And again the whole class started
laughing at her. She felt very embarrassed and helpless, that she has no worth and
importance here.
After the break, the teacher took the test and Hazel got 4 out of 20, got slapped by the
teacher so hard that her face got red, and after it she had to listen to the laughs of her
classfellows.
These types of respectful questioning, suggesting, and counter argumentation
remained continued. Hazel never disobeyed her teachers, rather she respected them,
even after all slaps and embarrassments. At school, Hazel learned the opposite.
She learned that questions were dangerous.
That correcting authority was shameful.
That intelligence, when visible, must be punished.
The first slap came when she spoke the truth.
The second came when she suggested fairness.
After that, the lessons became quieter.
Laughter.
Isolation.
Silence.
By the time Hazel was twelve, she no longer cried. She observed. She read. She
remembered. While other children learned how to blend in, Hazel learned how systems
worked—how schools rewarded obedience, how fear replaced curiosity, how
confidence was mistaken for arrogance.
She ate alone. She read alone. She grew alone.
And she survived.
As she grew up, the hate of the education system grew stronger in her mind. She
asked why we cram some books, give exams, go to the next level and then cram
whole new books? She said to one of her classfellow,
“Why do we cram a book and forget it at the next level? Then, start cramping another
to forget it. What’s the use of all this in our real life? We even can’t remember this
knowledge after an year”
She concluded out that this education system is not fair. And talked to every teacher
about it, that it must be changed. Physics and chemistry should be taught in the
laboratory rather than on a whiteboard. In urdu literature why do we cram the
summaries and essays? We should be taught to write on our own.
Trait 4: They are obsessed with their Purpose
Fast forward to the age 24, having a degree in literature, she became a prestigious
writer and began talking about social issues like unemployment, animal rights,
homelessness and injustice.
She wrote about unemployment, about young graduates standing in long lines with
degrees that had lost their value, because universities are only focusing on selling
degrees rather than training the youth with necessary knowledge, skills and attitude.
She wrote about homeless people, sleeping on footpaths while empty buildings stood
locked behind iron gates. She wrote about animal rights, questioning why cruelty was
normalized in the name of culture and convenience. How can a government order to
kill street dogs even if they are normal and harmless?
She wrote about injustice, especially the kind that hides behind uniforms and offices.
Her words were calm, logical, and deeply researched. She never abused anyone. She
never insulted beliefs. She only asked questions and presented facts.
On the other hand, her friend Hania got admission in Medical Science because her
parents wanted her to become a doctor. Hania wanted to become a painter. Hazel
always used to say to her friend that why she don’t follow her own passion? Hania was
afraid of getting out of social norms, especially parents’, as she got conditioned from
her early childhood.
But Hazel wasn’t. She did what she saw was important for her.
Her relatives worried.
“Why do you write about such things?”
“You should focus on your career.”
“This won’t benefit you.”
They loved her. But love, when mixed with fear, becomes advice that sounds like
warning. Hazel smiled and kept writing.
One day, a large media company contacted her. They praised her intelligence. They
praised her reach. They praised her influence. Then came the conditions.
“Tone it down.”
“Avoid sensitive topics.”
“Don’t criticize powerful institutions.”
Hazel read the email twice. She remembered her childhood classroom. The slap. The
laughter. The silence that followed.
She declined the offer.
That was when the labels began. Too bold. Too opinionated. Anti-social. Mentally
disturbed. Some called her a troublemaker. Others called her ungrateful. A few called
her dangerous.
Hazel understood then: society does not fear noise, it fears clarity.
Anger can be controlled. Violence can be crushed. But a calm, intelligent voice that
explains why things are wrong, that voice is terrifying.
Because it wakes people up. Her circle became smaller. Her nights became lonelier.
Her writing became sharper.
She sometimes wondered what life would have been like if she had learned to stay
quiet—if she had accepted things as they were, memorized answers, followed paths
already drawn.
It would have been easier. But it would not have been true. One evening, Hazel sat at
her desk, staring at a blank page.
Outside, the city hummed, busy, indifferent, alive. Somewhere, a homeless man curled
into himself against the cold. Somewhere, a child asked a question and was told not to
speak. Somewhere, someone felt the quiet discomfort of knowing something was
wrong and doing nothing about it. A woman got harassed, a cat or dog got killed by
authority.
Hazel began to write.
Not because she believed she could change the world overnight. But because silence,
she had learned, changes nothing.
And once a person learns to think, once they learn to question, once they learn to
speak there is no going back.
And she died in a sudden car accident at the age of 26. This is a story of one of my
close friends Hazel, whose intelligence was her crime and she got the reward for it.
In Reality
Society doesn’t fear intelligence itself, it fears what intelligence reveals:
● uncomfortable truths
● weak foundations
● unjust hierarchies
This world has never welcomed those who questioned the norms. That’s the reason
why the biggest philosophers of their times got famous after their death. Even their
books were published after their death.
But, here is an uncomfortable truth:
A society that silences its intelligent people may feel stable, but it slowly decays.
A society that listens to them may feel uncomfortable, but it grows.
Published in NOVA on February 15, 2026