Daughter of the soil by Najam Sethi

Malala Yousafzai is a true daughter of the soil. She has risked life and limb to promote the cause of education, the cause of women, the cause of children, the cause of non-violence, the cause of democratic freedoms, the cause of universal human rights. We should laud her brave efforts. Instead, some misguided Pakistanis are condemning her as an "agent" of the West.

Much of the hostility stems from two factors: a distorted image of the Taliban as some sort of anti-imperialist Islamic warriors, and the anti-American public rage in the country. Therefore, anyone who opposes the Taliban in any way, especially from a Western platform, is seen as an American-stooge or CIA agent. The irony is that many who hate Malala's "success" - she is a candidate for the Nobel Peace prize - would give an arm and a leg to be part of the "American Dream".

Several conspiracy theories are rife. According to one, the Malala "drama" was staged by the Pakistan Army to justify an operation against the TTP, This is absurd: the Pakistan army has been conducting continuous operations in Swat and Waziristan since 2007 and has lost over 3000 soldiers to the terrorists. According to another, the CIA staged the incident to justify renewed drone strikes. Ridiculous. The US has been raining Hellfire missiles from drones on the Taliban since 2004 and President Obama has announced drone strikes as an integral element of US counter-terrorism strategy for the next decade. Neither the CIA nor the ISI need to hide behind little Malala's skirts to justify their war against terrorism. Their own death toll at the hands of the Taliban is sufficient to spur them on.

Some powerful vested interests have also helped spin such conspiracy theories. Maulana Fazal ur Rehman is mortally scared of the TTP. He desperately wants a peace deal with them. So he is anti-Malala because she is a symbol of resistance to the Taliban. Raheela Qazi of the Jamaat-e-Islami has gone so far as to fabricate "facts" - a picture of Malala with the ex-Af-Pak US envoy Richard Holbrooke taken in Pakistan several years ago cites Malala as hobnobbing with "US military authority" (who will point to pictures of Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Munawar Hassan with similar US "military authorities"?).

It is also conveniently forgotten that Malala was a national heroine much before she caught the attention of the global community at the UN. Several Pakistani TV channels and papers had already lionized her for fighting the right causes. Indeed, that is precisely why the TTP sought to silence her, much like it did several journalists who tried to expose their criminal and barbaric ways. If she had died, she would have been counted as no more than a number among the forgotten 40,000 victims of TTP terrorism. But in defying death, she has become an icon for worthy universal causes like education and the rights of children. At home she was a virtuous girl who evoked public revulsion against the TTP in the same manner as the video of the anonymous woman who was publicly whipped by them in Swat several years ago. Abroad, the international community gave her a standing ovation because she symbolized the spirit behind the UN's charter of universal human rights and non-violence. Her heroes - Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Gandhi - are global icons of peace, truth and reconciliation. The UN doesn't need reminding by Malala that the TTP and Al-Qaeda are terrorists.

Some people ask why Malala, rather than anyone else from among the hundreds of female victims of the TTP, is a darling of liberals and democrats at home and abroad. The answer is simple: Malala has been bravely, consistently and publicly in the forefront of the struggle for children's rights and democratic freedoms in Swat. No other name except hers came to mind in this context before she was attacked. And when she was fighting for her life, it was natural for the media at home and abroad to focus on her and elevate her to a status that is larger than life.

Indeed, it was the Pakistan government and military that decided she should be moved swiftly to a hospital in the UK for treatment. Circumstances rather than any conspiracy compelled this decision: the Pakistan military has an existing arrangement with Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham from where some doctors were already visiting Pakistan and volunteered to treat Malala in their facility. Newspaper reports stress the fact that Malala's family only agreed to go abroad after President Asif Zardari insisted on it and ordered the Pakistan High Commission to give a sustenance job to Malala's father.

Malala Yusufzai is a heroine because of her many qualities of spirit, courage, eloquence and simplicity. Above all that, she stands and speaks for the finest human rights and freedoms of civilization. We should salute her out of a sense of shared values and pride instead of berating her out of self-loathing, envy or rage.

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/...0130726&page=1