The first thing that popped into my head when I heard about Malala Yusufzai’s Nobel Peace Prize win was an exuberant “Yay!” This was followed, I confess, by endless repetitions of “OMG she was born in ’97! What am I doing with my Ig-Nobel life?”
Most sane-and-sorted people in Pakistan must’ve thought along the same lines. Many were thrilled to bits that a Pakistani had won the world’s most important prize, and also become the youngest person ever to do so (by comparison, my greatest claim at 17 was that the man at the Kitchen Cuisine counter knew my name). Our official response was swift and mostly positive. The PPP took out ads in the papers congratulating Malala; Imran Khan tweeted his upbeat feelings; and the Government called her the Daughter of Pakistan.
We all know by now that Malala shared the prize with Indian national/saint-in-waiting Kailash Satyarti. Satyari is India’s Abdus Sattar Edhi. He has spent his life working for child welfare and the eradication of child labor; he also works for such children’s rehabilitation through education and higher learning. I was initially surprised by the news that the prize was shared (the first BBC headline was an extremely funny “Malala Yousafzai shares Nobel Prize” with no additional comment), not because Malala is a better candidate for the prize (God knows there are dozens, if not hundreds, who deserve it) but because Edhi and Satyarti both run fairly well-known NGOs that are similar in scope and vision, and so I thought they would make a more logical couple. Malala’s narrative – the girl who wrote, the girl who was shot, the girl who lived, the girl who survived and addressed the United Nations – was too attractive, too dramatic, too powerful to bear the mortal interference of another.
[quote]The people who call Malala an enemy agent would pass a kidney stone of gold if they were presented with a British immigration visa[/quote]
Alas, for a whole bunch of people in our country, her story isn’t any of those things. It goes without saying that some (okay, a lot of) angry and perennially conflicted Pakistanis found a way (like they say, where there’s an ill-will…) to be ungracious and mean-spirited even about something as obviously good for their country’s “image” as this little girl’s win. Typical ripostes to the announcement (as if it mattered) went along these lines: Why should Malala win the prize when so many other girls have been shot, maimed or blown up? What has she done for Pakistan? She brings us a bad name, her media presence is constructed to embarrass Pakistan internationally, and she is nothing but an American stooge. She wasn’t really shot, you know; my uncle’s cook’s nephew lives in those mountains, and he told me she’s been acting this whole time.
No, really, I want to congratulate such people because they are the epitome of national honor. Which is to say: they are the epitome of national cynicism. It’s quite simple, folks: she was shot in the head for continuing to go to school and barely survived, and in order to avoid being shot a second time she has fled this country. That’s right: she has fled this country. Like every other brave, brilliant, nonconforming individual who hasn’t died yet. We failed her, not the other way around.
The truth is that too many Pakistanis can’t swallow Malala’s story because it would require confronting the bleak truth about themselves. To accept her would require accepting that the Taliban exist, that they are utterly destructive and roam this land freely. (And moreover: that they were created by our military and its “premier intelligence agency.”) And it would require struggling with our favorite emotions: jealousy, misogyny and denial. Many of us are jealous that she, with her little schoolbag, has made a life of spectacular success abroad, and that too at the expense (or so the thinking goes) of Pakistan’s “reputation”. I am certain that these same people, the ones who call Malala an enemy agent, would pass a kidney stone of gold if ever presented with an American or British immigration visa and be out the door faster than you could say “hypocrite.”
Finally, we don’t want to accept that Malala is an extraordinary individual because to do so we would have to accept that we are the people who forced her to become extraordinary.
I believe that the biggest enemy we have in the world isn’t the US, or India, or Afghanistan, or even the Taliban and other armed zealots. Our biggest enemies are those Pakistanis who stick their heads in the sand and keep pretending that none of this is real, that Pakistan is basically one big misunderstood victim who was doing just fine before 9/11 happened and changed everything forever.
No. The horrible flowers of hate that have blossomed all around us were planted by our ancestors, and their ancestors, and their ancestors’ ancestors. (And by the Americans, and by the British before them.) But let us please acknowledge the odd good egg (sorry, Malala!) that comes out of this place, and hail it for the miracle of endurance that it is.
Congratulations, Malala Yusufzai. Here’s hoping we can one day be a nation worthy of you.
Write to thekantawala@gmail.com and follow @fkantawla on twitter.
Most sane-and-sorted people in Pakistan must’ve thought along the same lines. Many were thrilled to bits that a Pakistani had won the world’s most important prize, and also become the youngest person ever to do so (by comparison, my greatest claim at 17 was that the man at the Kitchen Cuisine counter knew my name). Our official response was swift and mostly positive. The PPP took out ads in the papers congratulating Malala; Imran Khan tweeted his upbeat feelings; and the Government called her the Daughter of Pakistan.
We all know by now that Malala shared the prize with Indian national/saint-in-waiting Kailash Satyarti. Satyari is India’s Abdus Sattar Edhi. He has spent his life working for child welfare and the eradication of child labor; he also works for such children’s rehabilitation through education and higher learning. I was initially surprised by the news that the prize was shared (the first BBC headline was an extremely funny “Malala Yousafzai shares Nobel Prize” with no additional comment), not because Malala is a better candidate for the prize (God knows there are dozens, if not hundreds, who deserve it) but because Edhi and Satyarti both run fairly well-known NGOs that are similar in scope and vision, and so I thought they would make a more logical couple. Malala’s narrative – the girl who wrote, the girl who was shot, the girl who lived, the girl who survived and addressed the United Nations – was too attractive, too dramatic, too powerful to bear the mortal interference of another.
[quote]The people who call Malala an enemy agent would pass a kidney stone of gold if they were presented with a British immigration visa[/quote]
Alas, for a whole bunch of people in our country, her story isn’t any of those things. It goes without saying that some (okay, a lot of) angry and perennially conflicted Pakistanis found a way (like they say, where there’s an ill-will…) to be ungracious and mean-spirited even about something as obviously good for their country’s “image” as this little girl’s win. Typical ripostes to the announcement (as if it mattered) went along these lines: Why should Malala win the prize when so many other girls have been shot, maimed or blown up? What has she done for Pakistan? She brings us a bad name, her media presence is constructed to embarrass Pakistan internationally, and she is nothing but an American stooge. She wasn’t really shot, you know; my uncle’s cook’s nephew lives in those mountains, and he told me she’s been acting this whole time.
No, really, I want to congratulate such people because they are the epitome of national honor. Which is to say: they are the epitome of national cynicism. It’s quite simple, folks: she was shot in the head for continuing to go to school and barely survived, and in order to avoid being shot a second time she has fled this country. That’s right: she has fled this country. Like every other brave, brilliant, nonconforming individual who hasn’t died yet. We failed her, not the other way around.
The truth is that too many Pakistanis can’t swallow Malala’s story because it would require confronting the bleak truth about themselves. To accept her would require accepting that the Taliban exist, that they are utterly destructive and roam this land freely. (And moreover: that they were created by our military and its “premier intelligence agency.”) And it would require struggling with our favorite emotions: jealousy, misogyny and denial. Many of us are jealous that she, with her little schoolbag, has made a life of spectacular success abroad, and that too at the expense (or so the thinking goes) of Pakistan’s “reputation”. I am certain that these same people, the ones who call Malala an enemy agent, would pass a kidney stone of gold if ever presented with an American or British immigration visa and be out the door faster than you could say “hypocrite.”
Finally, we don’t want to accept that Malala is an extraordinary individual because to do so we would have to accept that we are the people who forced her to become extraordinary.
I believe that the biggest enemy we have in the world isn’t the US, or India, or Afghanistan, or even the Taliban and other armed zealots. Our biggest enemies are those Pakistanis who stick their heads in the sand and keep pretending that none of this is real, that Pakistan is basically one big misunderstood victim who was doing just fine before 9/11 happened and changed everything forever.
No. The horrible flowers of hate that have blossomed all around us were planted by our ancestors, and their ancestors, and their ancestors’ ancestors. (And by the Americans, and by the British before them.) But let us please acknowledge the odd good egg (sorry, Malala!) that comes out of this place, and hail it for the miracle of endurance that it is.
Congratulations, Malala Yusufzai. Here’s hoping we can one day be a nation worthy of you.
Write to thekantawala@gmail.com and follow @fkantawla on twitter.