“An official says Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education, has urged Pakistan to reverse a decision to rename a college in her honor to avert militant attacks on students. The 15-year-old who became a symbol of youth resistance to the Taliban made the request after students broke into the school, tore down Malala's pictures and boycotted classes in her home town of Mingora. They say renaming the college endangers their lives.”
—Malala Yousufzai, Girl Shot By The Taliban, Asks Pakistan Not To Rename College For Her.
Did you read that, raging liberals of Pakistan and the West? Malala does not want the attention. She does not want to be a symbol. She does not want to lose her life because your obsession with symbolizing Muslim women into icons of resistance render damage to their very lives. If you genuinely care, try to understand the context and gravity of the situation.
Pray for Malala Yousafzai
At the age of 11, Malala Yousafzai took on the Taliban by giving voice to her dreams. As turbaned fighters swept through her town in northwestern Pakistan in 2009, the tiny schoolgirl spoke out about her passion for education — she wanted to become a doctor, she said — and became a symbol of defiance against Taliban subjugation.
On Tuesday, masked Taliban gunmen answered Ms. Yousafzai’s courage with bullets, singling out the 14-year-old on a bus filled with terrified schoolchildren, then shooting her in the head and neck. Two other girls were also wounded in the attack. All three survived, but late on Tuesday doctors said that Ms. Yousafzai was in critical condition at a hospital in Peshawar, with a bullet possibly lodged close to her brain.
A Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, confirmed by phone that Ms. Yousafzai had been the target, calling her crusade for education rights an “obscenity.”
“She has become a symbol of Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,” Mr. Ehsan said, adding that if she survived, the militants would certainly try to kill her again. “Let this be a lesson.”
“The American media has falsely convinced its viewers that Malala was shot because she wanted to go to school. It is unfortunate that most viewers have accepted this narrative and failed to ask simple questions like, “Is Malala the only girl in all of Pakistan who goes to school?” The average Muslim woman, or even the average Pakistani woman, does not get shot on a daily basis; millions of girls and women go to school daily, even if there are still many families who deny education to their daughters. Yet, for the American media, Malala has become a stand-in for the condition of the generic Muslim woman. Yes, there are issues in the Muslim world—including Pakistan—but many of the experiences of women in the Muslim world are shared by our sisters in the non-Muslim world. Highlighting one Pakistani girl’s case, and misrepresenting it as an attack on any Muslim woman who wants to go to school, not only trivializes the issue but also diverts attention from women’s mistreatment in the rest of the world—including the so-called Western world.”
—Orbala - How Not to Talk About Malala Yousafzai in Tanqeed magazine.
An excellent article by Orbala who argues that while criticizing US drone strikes is extremely important, one should not forget to criticize and bring attention to the ongoing attacks by the Pakistani military in the tribal agencies as part of being an ally in the so-called US “War on Terrorism.”
Make sure you read this.
regarding malala and pakistan:
the malala sympathy and positioning her as like the only pro-female education activist in pakistan especially in the context of a country where apparently no other girls can go to school is so problematic because the west actually doesn’t give a shit about pakistan like at all
when western governments drone strike pakistan & when western media portrays all pakistanis as terrorists or pakistan as the pit of a corrupt, failed state, how dare you actually try to stand up for a pakistani girl? don’t even pretend that you’d show her the same sympathy if she wasn’t shot by the taliban (which is conveniently opposed by western governments).
what about the little girls who have their homes destroyed by drones? that’s just “collateral damage”, right?
also, what about pakistani women WHO GO TO SCHOOL AND ARE EDUCATED AND DO THINGS? how does the image of pakistan get reduced to “oppressed brown girls who can’t go to school bc taliban”?
i’ve heard the same people who claim to support malala say the nastiest shit about pakistan. i once heard someone say, in regards to him supporting malala, “pashtun culture is the most terrifying culture i’ve read about” when, you cruel motherfucker, MALALA IS PASHTUN HERSELF.
furthermore, this type of shit has happened before. the media conveniently latches itself on to a single incident of horrific taliban abuse (especially of pakistani women) and opens the way to western and pakistani army intervention, both of which are incredibly destructive.
and honestly, until you are willing to address every single one of these issues in exactly the complexity they require, don’t give me shit about how “we’re all malala” bc you don’t understand the first thing about what it’s like to be a pakistani woman.
Malala Yousafzai attends 1st day at UK high school
BBC News: Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban after campaigning for girls’ rights to education, attended her first day of school in the UK.
She was shot on a school bus in Pakistan in October and recovered following treatment. She described starting school at Edgbaston High School for Girls as “the most important day” of her life.
“I think it is the happiest moment that I’m going back to school; this is what I dreamed, that all children should be able to go to school because it is their basic right,” she said.
