Malala and Western Opportunism
As a Pakistani-American, I’m a citizen of two of the most controversial, problematic countries in the international community. So when Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, I was simultaneously immensely proud and inspired, yet also relieved to see positive international news coming from one of my homelands. It was a great day for Pakistan and Pakistanis alike, the world over. However, despite the uplifting news, I eschewed letting this news detract my attention from the underlying, nuanced issue of Malala’s rise to superstardom, especially in the West.
Let’s not forget that the same Western leaders who praise Malala for her courageous struggle have been the persons responsible for (or party to) air striking and indiscriminately murdering her fellow Pakistanis, ethnic Pashtuns, and Muslims. These same leaders and their self-designated white man’s burden have hijacked and bastardized Yousafzai’s movement. These same leaders’ pernicious actions have forged the destructive path the Taliban has taken in treating young girls and other people like Malala, by initially causing (in the 20th century) and now exacerbating the group’s incapacity to distinguish between modernization/liberalism and Westernization/cultural encroachment, through imprudent interventionism and unlawful violent provocation. These same leaders have denied education for and murdered more children than any terrorist organization, whether indirectly or directly. These same leaders, mostly neoliberal themselves, have also thoroughly ignored the Marxist aspect of Malala’s message. (“I am convinced Socialism is the only answer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a victorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of bigotry and exploitation.”)
The actions of militant groups like the Taliban are undoubtedly inexcusable. But one mustn’t allow certain Western politicians’ and journalists’ narrative of the innocent brown girl being saved by the righteous white man, from the grips of her savage male captors, fool them into thinking that the root cause of the anti-feminist, anti-education leanings of the Taliban and other militant Islamists is anything but a reaction to the perceived neo-imperialist activity of the West in Muslim lands. Nor should they allow these intellectually dishonest politicians and journalists to fool them into buying into supporting further military action in these areas by propping up Malala as proof for its necessity.
Ironically enough, the most prominent of Western politicians peddling his or her own propagandist version of Malala’s story, none other than Barack Obama himself, won the Prize only 5 years back. This is the same leader to whom Malala boldly expressed her concerns of drone attacks (which have gone up substantially under his administration) fueling terrorism. If anyone deserved the Peace Prize, it was Yousafzai. But her win begs the question of how legitimate and principled the Nobel Peace Prize really is, and if the aforementioned false narratives are also being promoted by the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself. After all, it’s mostly comprised of Norwegian politicians, all of who are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. Thus, it’s hardly likely that the Nobel Peace Prize is free of politicization and/or Eurocentrism. In fact, the first Peace Prize given to someone outside of Europe or the Americas was handed down 60 years after it was first awarded, without even Gandhi ever receiving these honors.
Hopefully one day, Malala’s vision of a properly and equally educated Pakistani populace being will become a reality. Maybe then the masses in Pakistan will recognize that although militant Islamist groups are not on their side, neither are interventionist Western governments, nor the political establishment who’re allowing their destructive exploits to continue unchecked. It is education that allows for more nuanced sociopolitical discourse to take place, for endogenous modernization, rather than imposed Westernization or Islamization, as well as the transmission of a uniquely Pakistani perspective into the global conversation, fighting the presently dominant Western paradigm.
