The writer is director of the Department of Gender Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad
The appropriation of Malala by the West has also sharpened the tension between the ‘Christian North’ and the ‘Muslim South’. Through the adoption of Malala, the West is trying to project itself as liberal, humane, pro-women and pro-education. Showering Malala with all kinds of awards and nominating her for the Nobel Peace Prize helps the West construct its image as a saviour. This is an attempt to deflect global public attention from the injustices and atrocities that are being committed by the West under the leadership of the United States of America in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Continuing drone attacks on Pakistan as part of a mindless, inhuman war strategy of imperialist America against terrorism have killed scores of innocent civilians. By owning Malala, the West is trying to camouflage its hypocrisy and criminal silence on drone attacks in Pakistan and the violation of human rights that are a result of its economic agenda that it is aggressively pushing around the globe. The neo-liberal economic policies (liberalisation, privatisation and in formalisation of labour) and the supporting international monetary institutions (IMF, World Bank) have been responsible for creating massive poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy around the world. Consequently, 57 million children globally are out of school, 60 per cent of them being girl children.
Within the country, the attack on Malala as a Western agent is coming from extremist forces which themselves have a history of serving the Western agenda. These religio-political forces in the country have always been working closely with America as its allies. During the 1980s, they actively pushed the American agenda in the region. With the help of US dollars, they managed to create jihadi outfits and a jihadi culture in order to fight America’s war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. They clearly have a political agenda and they use religion to promote their politics. Thus, every time innocent citizens are attacked and human rights are violated in the name of religion, these forces come forward to provide justification for their actions. Instead of condemning terrorists for killing more than 50,000 innocent civilians, they will mention drone attacks as the reason and provide justification for their brutality.
Similarly, instead of condemning the brutal attack on Malala, they are projecting her as a Western agent to neutralise the severity of the heinous crimes. These are the psychological tactics that they use to blur and confuse public opinion by making Malala controversial. This helps them undermine the national consensus that has emerged on girls’ education following the attack.
Ironically, the beneficiaries of this brutal attack on Malala are actually the women of Pakistan. Malala achieved, singlehandedly, what the women’s rights movement in Pakistan failed to achieve over the last 65 years. Her survival of the brutal attack on her life has pushed the women’s rights agenda and the right to girls’ education at the centre stage of governance, not only in Pakistan but also globally. Despite the International Convention on Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals, the cause of women’s education could not have become as much of a priority of nation states as it is now because of Malala. There is an increasing focus, now, on children who are out of school globally in general and girl children in particular. Malala’s Global Fund of $1.5 billion has been created to address the plight of children who are deprived of their fundamental right to education around the world.
The anger, desperation and frustration of the Taliban apologists on the emerging leadership of Malala who represents the liberal, secular face of Pakistan is evident from their frivolous attacks on her book. In their shared desperation, they are coming up with conspiracy theories and playing with the religious sentiments of people. Their objections on the content of her book are absolutely trivial, laughable and meaningless.
Anti-Malala forces cleverly picked sensitive issues from her book to play with the religious sentiments of the public. They maliciously manipulate the content and the meaning of the text by putting their own words in her mouth.
They have objections to her views on the laws that were introduced by the military dictator Ziaul Haq. For many Pakistanis who believed that Zia manipulated religion for his political project, she is absolutely correct. Ziaul Haq is guilty of defaming religion.
Her views on the blasphemy law, Ahmadis and sectarianism are based on the ground reality of our society. Blasphemy laws after the amendments introduced by Zia have been massively misused. Ahmadis are the most persecuted community in Pakistan. Malala’s political vision is clearly influenced by the vision of Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan that is clearly reflected in his August 11 speech: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”
These religio-political forces are trying to make invisible the threats of humanism that seems to run through in Malala’s political position on every issue that she has reflected on in her book by focusing on trivialities. She is truly a vocal voice of the oppressed and marginalised. In her person, she represents the liberal, democratic and secular forces of the country. Malala’s celebration is the celebration of a liberal democratic thought in our society. This is what makes Malala hated, dangerous and threatening to the retrogressive forces in the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
COMMENTS (16)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Pakistan is notorious for disowning its citizens if they achieve any success abroad or are recognized internationally. So this was to be expected in Malala's case- no surprise here.
Where did my comment go ?? Lets try again..........slightly more toned down. Liked what you wrote and am inclined to agree with it. The fact that the West exploits countries like Pakistan is not entirely their fault, because it can be easily argued as to why do we allow ourselves to be exploited.
The west, Pakistani liberals like this author, and Malala's father are using this innocent girl's name for self-promotion.
Look at the title of this article and the title of book so-called authored by that little girl. Everybody is exploiting the name 'Malala'.
Lady, highlight issues, not personalities.
This author is not only highly emotional, a common phenomina in the south east, but gives the impression of a revolutionary individual with her sweepng statements. Madam, take it easy, Malala is a Pashtun girl, who has broken the barriers of divide between the east and the west, the liberals and the conservatives, men and women, rich and poor, powerful and the ordinary and beyond becoming the first teenager ICON of the world.
She has not yet contributed to the peace in her own town or the country and those who are the powerful one fear her most because of her teenage non polluted straight talk and are eager to be near her but are not yet prepared to heed to her call for the dialogue, accomodation and peace instea of confrontation and war. Let us recall that she is the first Pakistani who has condemned the droning strategy of the USA administration and spoke to the Nobel Prize laureate in front of the first lady in the white house.
Rex Minor
Except for the second paragraph, which is totally far-fetched and simplistic -why would Americans need Malala as an excuse, they can do whatever they want if they want to use the drones-, it's a good read.
Some of my brain cells died after reading the second paragraph. Frankly, the second paragraph is more of a ridiculous rant that's essentially hogwash. The rest of the article is fine though.
Very true!! These religio political force are suffocating Every child, every woman, every man in Pakistan. Please publish this article in urdu news paper as well. So people should know the true face of them.
@shahid: All note that you could have pointed out where you disagree with the authors assessments about Malala, BUT (lacking answers??) you just choose to throw rocks!!!
Since you promote this view of U.S. activities haven't you already lost the battle? After all, both you and the Talibs are willing to propagate lies, misrepresentations, and untruths to demonize supposed enemies. It's an easy step from there for you to demonize anyone in Pakistan merely by accusing them of being associated with "imperialist America", isn't it? Thus, whether you win or the Talibs win, Pakistan will continue to suffer from tyranny.
The way out isn't that difficult: when assessing what is just and what is not to embrace fact over selectively blind bigotry and embrace universal (not "Islamic") human rights and values.
Malala has a long life ahead. They should let her evolve, open up to the vast diversity of opinions and choose and serve humanity worldwide. Microanalysis and scrutinizing her views is itself unfair. She is strong and intelligent, certainly an asset for Pakistan. They should not shut doors for her by making her controversial, she difinitely can make a difference.
Secular liberal weekly garbage.
It will be good to know,as to how long how are we going to see repeated news on one single person(doesn't matter if she is a living saint)
People should be judged in term what they preach or say, and not through western or eastern standards /values. Malala is asking for Education for Swati and Pakistani girls. Should not we be supporting this universal need for every human being?
Thanks Farzana Bari for A thought provoking article!
Masha'Allah... very well written Ma'am... Hats off to you