In Malala Yousufzai’s home town in Pakistan, schoolfriends hope to see her win the Nobel Peace Prize this week — but they dream in secret, under pressure from a society deeply ambivalent about the teenage activist. Her longtime friend Safia has no such doubts. Peeling off from a group of girls at a high school in Mingora, the main town in Swat, she spoke confidently about her friend, and women’s rights, in excellent English. Malala is among the favourites for the Nobel, which will be awarded on Friday, and Safia said she deserves it. She supports Malala’s efforts to get all children — girls as well as boys — to go to school. “A bicycle cannot run with only one wheel: society is like a bicycle, with the male education as the first wheel and female education as the second one,” she told AFP. Safia’s sentiments are shared by many schoolgirls in Mingora, who want their country and their area to be known for something other than Taliban and bombs. “Malala is a model, not only for us but for the whole Pakistan,” said 14-year-old Rehana Noor Bacha. Education has improved in Swat since the Taliban days. Since 2011 the proportion of girls going to school has risen to nearly 50 percent, from 34 percent, while that of boys is close to 90 percent. But the authorities say they are short of at least a thousand female teachers and 200 classrooms for girls. The head of girls’ education in Swat, Dilshad Begum, explained that in Pashtun society “people don’t like to see women in front of cameras”. Maulana Gul Naseeb, a prominent figure in the JUI-F was more forthright. “America created Malala in order to promote their own culture of nudity and to defame Pakistan around the world,” he told AFP. Bizarre theories like this have gained ground on social networking sites, with users declaring themselves shocked to see the West elevate a girl “only” wounded while forgetting Afghan and Pakistani children killed by American bombs.
