'I am not Malala' day: A Pak group's answer to the 17-year-old's 'nexus with Rushdie'!

If you thought crusading for girls’ education in a deeply orthodox patriarchal society and then taking a bullet in the head for it, qualifies a person to be hailed world over as a hero, think again. Because a section of Pakistan’s population obviously doesn’t agree. And to make their objection to Malala’s fame heard, they have now declared an ‘I am not Malala Day’. The New York Times reports that the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation had declared 10 November as the anti-Malala day and had urged the Pakistan government to ban her memoir ‘I am Malala’, labeling it anti-Islam. Obviously, Malala is not the only villain in the story concocted by them. The organisation made the 17-year-old out to be an agent planted by the Western world to destroy Islamic civilisation. NYT quotes Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the organisation as saying, “We are all for education and women’s empowerment. But the West has created this persona who is against the Constitution and Islamic ideology of Pakistan.” [caption id=“attachment_1799317” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Malala Yousafzai. AFP.[/caption] Malala has also been derided by the Pakistani conservatives for citing Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses in her memoir, while discussing the idea of freedom of expression. Marie Claire quotes Ali as saying, “We severely condemned the chapter of the book in which Salman Rushdie’s book has been mentioned as freedom of expression by Malala while referring to father’s views.” Declaring the Pakistani teenager a ’tool’ in the hands of Western and anti-Islam forces, the traditionalists have pointed an accusing finger at the memoir, which has been written by British journalist Christina Lamb. NBC news reports: “Ali said participating schools held seminars “about what does it really mean to be Pakistani,” adding that they would do so every November 10 until Yousafzai “apologizes and disowns whatever anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam rubbish she wrote.” Ali also reproached Yousafzai for holding President Obama - and not the Prophet Muhammad - “as her ideal, even though he is responsible for thousands of deaths in Pakistan with his drones.” The association, which claimed to have power over 150,000 schools across Pakistan, had also barred schools under it from buying her memoir last year.