Malala and the league of extraordinary Pakistani women

Dear Pakistanis, for a change, believe in one of your own. Accept her as the extraordinary Pakistani that she is.


Zainab Imam July 13, 2013
The writer is a journalist based in Karachi, with a degree in Development and Economics and a focus on social justice. She tweets @zainabimam

There was the face of one woman in that room that could quash all the misgivings that one has about Malala Yousufzai’s “backstory”. No, it wasn’t 16-year-old Malala’s herself; it was her mother’s. Minutes after Malala began her magnificent speech at the United Nations General Assembly on July 12, the camera cut to the face of her proud parents. Her father smiled like a man who had won a battle he had fought his entire life. Her mother, in her plain white dupatta and light green shalwar kameez, sat next to him wiping a tear that fell out of her right eye.

Since October 9, 2012, one of the many dark days in Pakistani history, we have heard as many views on Malala as we have avenues of information — newspapers, television shows, social media, etc. The dominant view seems to be “she’s too confident to be doing this on her own, somebody must be supporting her”. But on July 12, when a young Pakistani woman wowed the entire world by her simple yet powerful views, I let go of trying to look logically at the other view — I saw the tear that fell out of Malala’s mother’s eye and I felt what had caused it. Malala’s mother, purported to be a CIA agent, was crying because the little girl who she had carried in her womb for nine months and nurtured for 15 years was finally able to speak with her characteristic vigour after surviving a bullet to her head. Ask a mother what that must feel like. Ask her if she would still care for a damned foreign agency when her own flesh and blood is battling for life. It wouldn’t be so hard for us to believe in Malala’s magnificence if we were a nation of people who stood up when we felt the pain of being snatched of something we hold in high esteem.

There is a lot to be taken away from Malala’s story — from the day she spoke out, to the day she was shot until the day she told the UN what a simple Pakistani woman can achieve given some confidence by her near and dear ones. The bias against women is so strongly ingrained in our heads that our nation can hardly believe in a confident woman who actually wants the best for this country. In Pakistan, you cannot be a well-wishing female citizen until you’re acquiescent and respectful of “social norms”, no matter how much they pull you down.

This is the same attitude that a whole line of amazing Pakistani women have had to battle, from Benazir Bhutto to Asma Jahangir to Sherry Rehman to Mukhtaran Mai to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Each one of these educated, empowered and accomplished women has, at one point or the other, been named an agent for an ill-meaning cause, agents who are out to destabilise Pakistan for money. In actuality, all they were out to do is destabilise the ridiculously skewed representation of men compared with women in Pakistan. They are such evil “ladies” because they refuse to silently obey and follow the patriarchy that continues to grip our society.

Dear Pakistanis, for a change, believe in one of your own. Accept her as the extraordinary Pakistani that she is. Love her and respect her. Don’t let her gender get in the way of that. Don’t translate her message of peace as ‘western’; it is universal.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2013.

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COMMENTS (18)

To Iqra the terrorist! | 11 years ago | Reply

@Ikra:

Let me be as clear as it needs for you to understand!

The drones and attack on Malala are not linked! She was targeted and your beloved Taliban proudly claimed responsibility for it! Innocent people dying in drones is a tragedy but for your information the ''highest'' figures do not put the count of innocent people killed in drone attacks more than 1000. These include the extremely unbiased pro-Taliban reports!

You think Taliban who have violated Pakistani law, Islamic law and every law on earth need to be talked to and not arrested, and perhaps handed over a chunk of Pakistani territory called North Waziristan to carry out terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and world over.

By any canon of law this makes you culpable for supporting a terrorist organisation, it also makes you culpable for the following crimes:

Obstruction of justice Aiding and abetting the crime of murder and attempting to murder (in this particular case) Aiding and abetting terrorism Violating sovereignty of Pakistan and thereby high treason as supporting Uzbek, Tajik, Chechen, Egyptian, Yemeni and other fighters whom you support in their illegal attempt to stay in Pakistani territory without permission.
Syed Irfan aSHRAF | 11 years ago | Reply

If people in Swat were killed, do you think Malala was responsible for that? If terrorists and civilians are killed in drones do you think Malala has given its permission? You people don't have the generosity to accept a girl and that too a Pashtun girl to credit her for what she did at the cost of herself [she was shot in the head]. You don't have the courage to blame the state apparatus for giving permission for drone strikes. You don't have the guts to criticize the agencies for letting Raymand Davis leave the country after killing two spies. But you have the balls to blame Malala for raising her voice for education. Shame on you. Sharm bhe naheen atee ap logon ko jo malala ko criticise kar rahain hain. Pakistan is dark because of retrogressive mentality, who cannot do anything and will not let others do something.

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