Malala Yousafzai: Owning the narrative

Ostracising the young woman will bring no good to Pakistanis

2014 is the year Pakistan gets its second ever Nobel Prize winner. 2014 is the year Pakistan earns the honour of having given birth to the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner till date. 2014 also seems to be the year where the nation establishes a pattern of hating our Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Malala’s shares her Prize with India’s Kailash Satyarthi. Both have struggled for child rights, but while Malala is the “Jewish agent”, “American puppet”, “Drama queen” – the list goes on – Kailash is celebrated for the work he’s done. In fact while this maybe Pakistan’s second Nobel Prize, it most certainly isn’t India’s. Somewhere, while Malala was living her story, we were effectively severing ourselves from it. She has managed to bring us the highest of honours and yet we cower in shame at her name. What has gone wrong?

Ghosts from our past

This girl’s story, her narrative, is an important one. She has sparked hope and optimism in millions of people. Why has Pakistan forsaken her – better yet, why does it repeatedly forsake those that do something beyond what is expected of them. The only person who we can compare to her is Dr Abdus Salam. His work continues to be celebrated around the world on a constant basis. He put in the foundation on which our entire nuclear arsenal stands. His contributions to electroweak unification were what got him into the limelight and eventually helped him win the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, but his brilliance didn’t stop there. His contributions to Higgs Boson are applauded even today. The Nobel Prize was but a feather in his cap, he had a plethora of others. If you took to the streets right now and asked about him, however, no one would know a single institute that’s named after him. People won’t even be able to tell you just what he did for the nuclear program. What they can tell you is that he was an Ahmedi — and that is where his story begins and ends.

While Pakistan has been busy erasing him from our history books and trying to ensure that we remember nothing of consequence about him, the world has been celebrating and embracing his work. The respect that he has around the globe is something to marvel at, indeed. What could have been a brilliant narrative to help pump energy and enthusiasm for science and innovation into our youth was not hijacked from us, we simply threw it away.

The only person who we can compare to her is Dr Abdus Salam. His work continues to be celebrated around the world on a constant basis. He put in the foundation on which our entire nuclear arsenal stands

Like Dr Abdus Salam, Malala is also part of the marginalised world. Her voice is a marginalised voice. Her narrative, while so beautifully Pakistani, is one we have so willingly given up, for no reason other than not wanting to believe her.

A need for change

“A girl has the power to go forward in her life and she is not only a mother. She is not only a sister. She is not only a wife, but a girl should have an identity,” said a beaming Malala. One can only hope that they seep into the hearts of all young girls that are listening. If Malala can help motivate young girls to do more, to try harder, then why can’t she do the same for women at home?

Malala’s story is often ridiculed for having been hijacked for the west. We heard echoes of “I am Malala” from voices and faces none of us could relate to. But is that Malala’s fault or our own? Instead of making her our heroine and pushing her out into the world as our warrior queen we instead riddled the narrative with conspiracy theories and left it at that.

People now feel as though Malala’s only purpose in life is to defame Pakistan. They forget the shenanigans that our leaders undertake every chance they get.

When TuQ refuses to get off a plane and the airline threatens to have him charged with hijacking, our sensibilities about Pakistan’s image stay deep in slumber. When Imran Khan quite literally takes over Red Zone and shows the world how absolutely unsafe our diplomatic areas are, we ask no one why he isn’t being more careful because his actions will most definitely make Pakistan look like it’s a den of raging idiots.

Is it a coincidence that Homeland’s new season portrays Pakistanis as mindless savages? This is the show we keep telling the world to tune into. From our elected premiers to leaders operating from London – everyone is defaming Pakistan in some capacity or the other, everything is helping us look utterly stupid by any margin allotted to mankind. Yet, those are not the issues that bother us. Those are not narratives that we want to disassociate ourselves from.

What bothers is the story of a girl. A girl who is ruining how we look by telling the world that Pakistan needs to be more serious about its little Taliban problem, because prior to Malala getting shot in the head because she wanted an education, the world had no idea that the Taliban even existed — or that they were continuously tearing schools down.

Malala is essentially not a threat to Pakistan because she’s a Jewish agent or a puppet of any sort. She is a threat because she is a woman, and a remarkable one at that. After getting shot in the head by the Taliban, Malala did the unthinkable, she rose back up. Apparently, fighting for a girl’s right to an education is a grave offence, an even bigger one is slapping your attackers in the face and coming back stronger. This is especially true if you are a woman. The difference between Malala and other girls is so simple it hurts — she wasn’t raised with anything extra, but she was taught to be as strong as a boy her age would be. Her life is beyond cooking the perfect round roti — and that reality isn’t one our nation is about to stomach. Precisely that attitude is going to come back and bite us where it hurts.

The world is changing and Pakistan needs to get with the program. We can no longer afford to sit in our comfortable patriarchal boxes, sewing in our misogyny and sense of entitlement. If you let a woman behave like an equal then what would make you a man — that kind of logic is where this entire problem begins and ends.

Pakistan needs to be more serious about its little Taliban problem, because prior to Malala getting shot in the head because she wanted an education, the world had no idea that the Taliban even existed — or that they were continuously tearing schools down

Malala can be used to propel so much good in this country. This country needs to stop the witch hunt and acknowledge all the good that’s come out of her life for us.

Illogical and fractured

Many who criticise Malala talk about the good Taliban and the bad Taliban. They will also go on to note the example of Aafia Siddiqui who has been perpetually dubbed the daughter of Pakistan. While Aafia’s background is certainly dubious and painted in hues of espionage, no one needs to think or, or acknowledge, this fact in the country. It is easier to like Aafia, she is a victim, she needs protection – those are traits which are quintessentially important for patriarchy to survive. On the other hand Malala’s father has lost his marbles and is teaching the girl how to stand up to men with guns. We do not have an issue with owning the Taliban narrative either. We don’t mind Aafia’ black roots.

The sad irony in all of this is that ISIS is being touted as evil even in most Muslim quarters. ISIS, the hub of all evil, the group that has threatened to topple Makkah, has asked for Aafia’s release. The Taliban, who are supposedly our brothers and our people and inherently good, have pledged their support for ISIS. But in this entire situation, we hear not a peep from anyone as to why these entities still get any attention or respect, but we will go at length to malign and slander Malala. Not once since she had left has she asked for anything but a girl’s right to an education.

The same people who argue that the Nobel Peace Prize has lost its charm because it’s given to all sorts of people that don’t deserve it, will wait three minutes before asking why it wasn’t given to Edhi instead. The same people will then follow their comment with another question: since when do they care about a foreign honour such as this one? Unfortunately, Pakistan hasn’t set up the Pakistani Prize Factory for Nobel Peace Something Something just yet, so we will have to make do with international standards for now.

Pakistan needs to stop ostracising the people that bring it pride. It would be seriously masochistic if in addition to all that is wrong we also create a legacy of hating our Nobel Peace Prize Winners. This year’s Prize is proof that despite all our nasty problems we still have it in us to jump up and seize the day, to really do something that matters. She is a part of us, just as we are a part of her. Sure, we can tell the west they can keep her, but the question is why? We need more Malalas. We can’t give up the one that we’ve got.