Pakistan’s Private Schools Ban Malala’s Memoir
Malala Yousafzai gives a copy of her book “I am Malala”, to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth during a Reception for youth, education and the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace in London October 18, 2013.November 10, 2013
Yousafzai’s memoir “I Am Malala” was released in October and is co-written by a British journalist (Christina Lamb).
The book remains among the best sellers internationally, but it has come under fire from right-wing groups in Pakistan, where private schools have decided to disallow it from being read by their students.
Adeeb Javedani is president of All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, which represents more than 40,000 elite institutions across the country. He defended the decision to ban Malala’s book.
Javedani insisted it is beyond anyone’s comprehension that a young girl of Malala’s age can write things like Ahmadis are being declared infidels in Pakistan, whereas no such movement is under way. Javedani believes that Malala herself “has not written this book and someone representing Europe (general reference to the West) has done so under Malala’s name.”
He says Pakistani education authorities have assured his organization they do not plan to include Malala’s memoir in the textbooks being taught at government and private schools.
Under pressure from Islamic parties, the minority Ahmadi community was declared non-Muslims in the early 1970s. Malala in her book has highlighted the fact that Ahmadis say they are Muslims, but the laws of the land do not allow them to say it openly.
Javedani and others point out that Malala has mentioned the Prophet Muhammad’s name without the abbreviation PUH, or “peace be upon him,” which is considered mandatory in Muslim nations.
But rights activists, like Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy of Islamabad’s prestigious Quaid-e-Azam University, say that pro-Taliban elements within the society are deliberately distorting facts to punish Malala for advocating her right to education.
“She does not in her book say that Ahmadis are Muslims,” said Hoodboy. “She simply says that these are people who are being persecuted, and that is a fact of life. Nobody can dispute that Ahmadis today are the most persecuted of minorities, all of which are persecuted in Pakistan today.”
Hoodbhoy also insisted that Malala is being wrongly accused of defending British author Salman Rushdie, who angered many Muslims with his book “The Satanic Verses.”
“The fact that Salman Rushdie has been banned and excoriated in Pakistan is an indication of the kind of extreme intolerance that has come to characterize Pakistani culture,” said Hoodboy.
Malala campaigned against Taliban attempts to blow up schools and ban female education in her native Swat district in 2009, until a military offensive flushed the Islamists out of the northwestern region. She attracted international attention late last year when militants tried to assassinate her while she was coming back from school.
Malala was airlifted to Britain with the help of Pakistani authorities for medical treatment and she is now living there with her family.
Professor Hoodboy says the conspiracy theories surrounding Malala’s episode are a worrying indication of the fact that the influence of the Taliban and the people who think like the Taliban has significantly grown in Pakistan.
“This is a young girl who ought to be a heroine for people across the board in Pakistan, and yet there is only a minority which supports her,” said Hoodboy. “On the other hand a mass murderer, a killer of Pakistanis like Hakimullah Mehsud, has been given the degree of being a martyr.”
Mehsud was the chief of the Pakistani Taliban and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Pakistanis. Last week an American drone strike against his hideout in the North Waziristan tribal region killed him. The Taliban has appointed as its new leader Mullah Fazlullah, who masterminded the attack on Malala.
Categories: Ahmadis And Pakistan, Belief
From what I have heard of the contents of this Book, it unfortunately seems that this teenage girl is indeed a pawn of the enemies of Islam. I have read this book thoroughly, to be honest there is nothing to teach in this book at school level. Then who has the stake to introduce this book in Pakistani educational institutions and why? Moreover, it is controversial and not depicted 16 years old Girl’s views.So the promoter must read it just to get the idea. This book is not for Pakistan. This is really a good step by private schools association to ban the Book of Malala. The book contains content which is painful for Muslim believer. I hope she stops playing in the hands of the west as a toy..
Why Malala is being taken as an exaggerated issue till now in Pakistan and how & why foolishly Malala’s book “I am Malala” is trying to include the schools’ courses?????
Please leave this issue now and concentrate on the other important,core and burning issues than Malala…… Ban or not, the book is just an insight laced with flavours palatable to westerners…. rather i should say the book is loaded with all that ‘sells’ in west…. Just as our English press is disconnected with the society, choosing to highlight specific few issues…. But one thing is clear, excerpts clearly show it has not been written by Malala….
The school associations can only prescribe for banning those books from the libraries which are restricted as such by the government of Pakistan, said Syed Khalid Shah, the chairperson of National Education Council, which is considered as the largest educational platform to represent the private educational institutions across the country. “In case of Malala’s book, there is no such restriction imposed by the government and it is a school’s prerogative of whether they decide to keep it or not.” Meanwhile, Punjab Textbook Board Chairman Nawazish Ali told The Express Tribune that the book carries no relevance as far as the national curriculum is concerned. “We have a set of defined subjects for which the board selects the most appropriate books to be taught at the schools. The book written by Malala, however, is out of consideration.”
The truth is that there are hundreds and thousands of other Malala’s. They come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places in the world. Many are victims of the West, but we conveniently forget about those as Western journalists and politicians fall over themselves to appease their white-middle class guilt also known as the white man’s burden.
Gordon Brown stood at the UN and spoke words in support for Malala, yet he is the very same Gordon Brown that voted for the war in Iraq that not only robbed people of their education but of their lives. The same journalists that failed to question or report on the Western wars in an intelligible manner now sing the praises of the West as they back Malala and her campaign without putting it in context of the war in Afghanistan and the destabilisation of the region thanks to the Western occupation of Afghanistan.
Malala’s message is true, it is profound, it is something the world needs to take note of; education is a right of every child, but Malala has been used as a tool by the West. It allows countries like Britain to hide their sins in Afghanistan and Iraq. It allows journalists to report a feel good story whilst they neglect so many others, like the American drone strikes that terrorise men, women and children in Pakistan’s border regions.
The current narrative continues the demonization of the non-white Muslim man. Painting him as a savage, someone beyond negotiating with, beyond engaging with, the only way to deal with this kind of savage is to wage war, occupy and use drones against them. NATO is bombing to save girls like Malala is the message here.
Historically the West has always used women to justify the actions of war mongering men. It is in the imagery, it is in art, in education, it is even prevalent in Western human rights organisations, Amnesty International’s poster campaign coinciding with the NATO summit in New York encouraged NATO to ‘keep the progress going!’ in Afghanistan.
Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz were also shot along with Malala, the media and politicians seem to have forgotten about them. Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi – how many of the Western politicians and journalists know about this name? She was the 14-year-old girl gang raped by five US soldiers, then her and her family, including her six-year-old sister were murdered. There are no days named after her, no mentions of her at the UN, and we don’t see Gordon Brown pledging his name to her cause.
I support Malala, I support the right to education for all, I just cannot stand the hypocrisy of Western politicians and media as they pick and choose, congratulating themselves for something that they have caused. Malala is the good native, she does not criticise the West, she does not talk about the drone strikes, she is the perfect candidate for the white man to relieve his burden and save the native.
The Western saviour complex has hijacked Malala’s message. The West has killed more girls than the Taliban have. The West has denied more girls an education via their missiles than the Taliban has by their bullets. The West has done more against education around the world than extremists could ever dream of. So, please, spare us the self-righteous and self-congratulatory message that is nothing more than propaganda that tells us that the West drops bombs to save girls like Malala.
I A
London School of Islamics Trust
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk