Why Malala Stirs up Controversy in Pakistan?
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Impressed by her passion for the education of women, the West lionizes Malala Yousafzai. They believe the courage and perseverance which she demonstrated against the Taliban even after she was shot in the head, demand worldwide recognition. Her struggle is so compelling that it has become a part of the curriculum in some Middle schools across the United States.
On the contrary, she does not enjoy the same celebrity status back home where she stays controversial on most social, moral and ethical issues. In fact, it will not be too wrong if I said she has become more of a divisive figure in Pakistan than a uniting one, and carries the impression of an insincere Pakistani who is more loyal to the West and their values than her birthplace. So polarizing is her personality now that if you talked to the people on the street you will realize either they support her all the way, promoting her like their very own sister or resent her as if she was their personal enemy, a ‘foreign agent,’ a thief who has taken something out of their pockets.
Simply put, she is not Abdul Sattar Edhi or Dr Adeeb Rizvi who are cherished across the nation irrespective of one's faith, gender, political affiliation or educational status. Knowing that, I am confident that Pakistanis would have been a lot happier if either one of them had got the Nobel Prize instead of Malala as these humanists have so thoroughly devoted their lives to the well being of the people who have been ill served and deserted by their ruling middle and upper classes.
Before moving any further, I want to mention that Malala is not alone in being controversial in the country of her origin. There are many renowned figures who are well recognized in Europe, but fail to inspire their compatriots. Dr Abdus Salam, I believe, would sit on the top of that list, followed by the Oscar Award winner Sharmeen Obaid Chenoy. With these people in mind, the question is if there is a pattern of neglecting all the national heroes. I don’t think so. For instance, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a world renowned musician and singer, was revered both in Hollywood and considered a legend back home. To be honest, he may have been more popular than Sharmeen Chenoy as he worked with the most acclaimed directors of all times like Martin Scorcesse and Oliver Stone. Imran Khan too, falls in the same category. Irrespective of his political ideology, he was considered a national hero even by his opponents while he appeared equally popular in Europe. What is the reason for this discrepancy?
Let me start by saying that even if Pakistanis do not agree with Malala Yousafzai’s ideology, most Pakistanis, at least, now agree that the perpetrators of the attack on her should be punished for their cowardly act. If they doubted the news about her injury in the beginning or sympathized with the Taliban before, the situation has changed altogether after the Peshawar massacre. The nation, today, stands behind their armed forces to wipe out terrorism altogether, against the people who cannot differentiate between a political ideology, religious beliefs and pure savagery. With that u-turn in their approach on tackling violence in the name of religion, the realistic expectation was that the favorable ratings of Malala Yousafzai would also rise. But that did not happen. What happened was that as their popularity dropped to almost zero, Malala’s ranking slid too. The question is: why?
I think it is not what Malala, or Sharmeen have achieved on a personal level that matters to them, instead it is how their work represents Pakistan which matters. Their personal achievement could be as honorable as getting a Noble Prize, but if that honor is obtained by putting forward a negative view of their country, it will not go well with the general population. With apologies to Dr Salam, I will have to take him out of this list because his work was purely scientific in nature and had little or no bearing on social issues; he just got penalized for being an Ahmedi at a time when emotions were running high in the year 1979.
The problem with both Sharmeen and Malala is that they show or represent the picture of Pakistan which, even though it is true, is not pretty. Either it depicts a society that throws acid on the faces of helpless women, rendering them handicapped for the rest of their lives if they survived the attack, or shoots them in the head when they want to study and desire to be independent. The response of the people to that negative publicity is hence also negative. Wondering why they can't find anything good in us, they think of the youngest Noble Laureate and the sole Oscar Award winner as either being unduly influenced by the West, dissatisfied by their own culture, or in the last case scenario, being paid by the country's enemies to demoralize Pakistanis.
I do not agree with their assumptions though. I think if by bringing up a hard truth about the society if one’s reputation gets tarnished, then that must be taken as an acknowledgment of one's work, not as criticism; and if one's work stirs up a controversy then it, too must be embraced as an honor instead of humiliation. How can one improve if one refuses to introspect and identify his/her own problem? There is honestly no other way. Somebody from within has to do the dirty job.
Having said that, I also understand the feelings of the people. I know they would like to be respected and recognized as ‘normal individuals’ without having the stigma of being a supporter of the Taliban ideology or a typical Muslim male chauvinist. They want the rest of the world to look at them and know that most of the Pakistanis do not support either of these ideologies. But, they just do not know how to achieve that objective. They are hankering to get some recognition from the West on these endeavors too.
