Why do most Pakistanis hate Malala?

The northern areas of Pakistan are inhabited by illiterate people whose mindsets are similar to those who lived in the stone Age. I was in Swat with my wife and two daughters when a cleric in the adjoining district of Malakand asked his followers to kidnap any unveiled women in the area and bring them to him. He said he would immediately give the unveiled women in marriage to their kidnappers. Needless to say, I hurriedly left the place and have never gone there again.

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So it wasn't surprising that the wild-eyed, heavily bearded Taliban captured Swat and the adjoining districts to impose their own version of Islam and Sharia on the hapless populace. The biggest damage they did to the country was in persuading women not to get their kids vaccinated against polio. They also banned education for girls, burning down many schools in the process.

Before Taliban rule, Swat was quite different from other places in the northern areas. So it was only natural that female literacy was higher in Swat than in the adjoining districts. This must have irked the Taliban, who believe that women are meant to be baby-producing machines, to be confined inside their houses twenty four hours a day and 365 days a year.

In this claustrophobic climate for women, Malala started writing about the atrocities committed by the Taliban. She was already well-known to the outside world before she was shot in the face by the Taliban. After treatment abroad, she was awarded the Nobel prize, the second Pakistani national to be so honored. It was for this reason that most Pakistanis became convinced that she is an agent of the Western powers and is therefore hated so much. An ex-professor I know also says she is an enemy of the country. 

Yesterday, someone objected to her photo in a book prescribed for schools in KP, and the book was banned. Before that, her book launching ceremony two years ago was not allowed to take place. And now that the Taliban are expected to conquer Afghanistan soon, our leaders want to assure them that Pakistanis are as good Muslims as they are, so they have started taking steps to prevent Malala and other prominent women of Pakistan from being projected as good Pakistanis. 

I predict that in the years to come, it will be people like Malala, Sharmeen Chinoy and Hamid Mir who will be regarded as our heroes. But that will be at least fifty years from now.

I know why they hate Malala!

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Malala and her admirers wonder why she is hated by so many in the country of her birth. Among the people who hate her are the ones who have been brainwashed into believing that Pakistan was created for Muslims only, that a woman's place is in the home, that a Muslim woman should not speak to foreigners, and a Muslim woman should never object if her husband wants her to bear at least fifteen children.

So, for these haters, any Muslim woman who speaks in the presence of male strangers should immediately be declared an infidel. The same goes for any Muslim woman who wants to vote in elections. And if a Muslim woman dares to ask her husband for a divorce, she should be made to march naked in public, and then shot.

One of Malala's "crimes" was that she was reporting to the BBC about the heinous activities of the Taleban in Swat, who were in those days called "stakeholders" in running the country. It was only after they had killed a hundred and forty school children that those in charge decided that a red line had been crossed and they should be stopped. Just yesterday the government surrendered to some Taleban-type mullahs led by the foul-mouthed Khadim Hussain Rizvi and agreed to their demands after they had paralyzed Lahore for three days.

The final blow was of course the Nobel Prize. This was enough to condemn the poor girl even among those who want a new Pakistan. So, it won't be long before Pakistani women are banned from using the internet or even answering telephone calls, because these Stone-Age people believe that if a male stranger talks to a Muslim woman, either she has to marry him (if she's unmarried) or she is automatically divorced (if married).

Conspiracy theories and fighting the Taliban

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20, 2012

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KARACHI: With reference to your editorial “Taking on the Taliban” (October 16), it is indeed distressing to see perfectly normal people saying that the attempted murder of Malala Yousufzai was carried out by government agencies/the CIA, etc., to divert attention from — among other things — the sacrilegious video that created such a furore last month and aroused the ire of Muslims throughout the world.

As ‘proof’, they say that this incident would justify the government’s decision to either support drone attacks or launch a military operation in North Waziristan. A photo of the poor child sitting at a table with a foreigner is also being circulated on the internet to prove that she is an American agent. Mind you, these people are not fanatics. Some of them are my friends, men and women, who read international newspapers and watch BBC, CNN and the Discovery channel. We have sunk so low that we cannot openly blame the Tehreeke-e-Taliban Pakistan, despite there being all the evidence in the world that they are the ones who have been burning girls’ schools and preventing them from acquiring education. Shame on us!

Shakir Lakhani

What have the Taliban got against female education?

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Why do the Taliban want to kill educated women? Yesterday a brave 14-year old girl (Malala Yousufzai) was shot in the head because she openly criticized the Taliban for burning girls' schools and not allowing girls to study. I know that most Pakistanis will say that it's not the Taliban who're burning girls' schools and shooting educated or working women, it's foreigners (Americans) as no Muslim would do it, but they're all wrong. Let me tell them that such Muslims are and have always been among us, and their number is growing.

I once told a religious scholar about Islam's emphasis on education (for both men and women), but he replied, "Women should be educated, but only in religious matters, they should not be allowed to study science and other subjects, otherwise they will ask to work alongside men."

So this is what bothers them? That Muslim women will start working in offices and factories and some of them will turn into nymphomaniacs? Or that they will demand to marry only those whom they want, not those who are chosen by their fathers and brothers? And they claim to be custodians of Islam, which allows women the freedom to select their future husbands!