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On Oct. 11, 2013, Malala Yousafzai was in Washington to promote her book, “I am Malala.”
The first news she received in the morning was that she did not get this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. It may have disappointed her, although she said it did not and congratulated the winners. But she had little time to think about it.
Finance ministers and senior officials from around the world were waiting for her at the World Bank. And these were not poets or bleeding heart liberals. They were hardened “financialists,” who usually do not go to functions where teenagers talk about their dreams. But they came to listen to her.
“Did you ever wish to be a boy?” she was asked. To which she responded:
It seems really strange. I never wished to be a boy and I will never wish it. I am proud to be a daughter. I am proud to be a girl.
She also went to a school where the US president and others like him send their kids. There, it is said, President Barack Obama’s daughters waited in a queue to greet her. They might have but it did not impress the Taliban.
“The Taliban will not lose an opportunity to kill Malala Yousafzai and those who were found selling her book will be targeted,” Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in Pakistan.
“If I had the chance before I was shot, I would have told the Taliban, ‘you can shoot me, but listen to me first. I want education for your sons and daughters. Now I have spoken, so do whatever you want,’” said Malala.
On Oct. 9, 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home in Swat on a school van.
On Oct. 11, 2013, US President Barack Obama signed a proclamation to mark this day as the International Day of the Girl. And after signing the proclamation, the president, the First Lady and one of their daughters welcomed Malala to the Oval Office.
On Oct. 12, 2012 a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated their intent to kill Malala and her father.
On Oct. 11, 2013, Malala was a frontrunner for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The prize committee gave it and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
“The OPCW is an important organisation working on the ground to help rid the world of chemical weapons. I would like to congratulate them on this much-deserved global recognition,” Malala said.
The book she co-authored with Christina Lamb, which was distributed in the US on Oct. 11, has already earned $3 million for her. And it will bring more as the book already sold thousands of copies on the first day.
I am happy for Malala. I am happy that she is living this magical life that others can only dream of, and she did too when she was living in Swat.
But I am also happy for her because she did not get the Nobel Prize. In losing the award, she won the chance to live a semi-normal life. Obviously, the world’s most famous teenager cannot live like other normal kids. There is a price to pay to be famous and every celebrity has to pay that price.
But a Nobel Prize would have taken away whatever chances she still has to be as normal as possible. And she deserves to live the life of a teenager and do all the things that teenagers do.
Washington Post’s education reporter Valerie Strauss disagrees. She believes Malala could have been a “more electrifying choice for the 2013 prize.”
Yes, it could have electrified millions and that’s why she should not have won it. A teenager does not need to electrify the world all the time. Sometimes, she also needs to play, read, sing, and argue with parents, to go out and enjoy. Being a teenager does not necessarily include traveling across the globe with world leaders.
I met Malala during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to the United Nations last month when she spoke at a seminar that Sharif also attended. (Please note, Malala’s presence eclipses world leaders too and they are counted among those who attended her meeting.)
We, a group of Pakistani journalists, saw her walking into Sharif’s hotel with her father and former British prime minister, Gordon Brown. We asked her to stop. She did.
I told her that I had recently visited her hometown in Swat. She wanted to talk but Mr Brown intervened. She had signed a contract with her publishers and could not give interviews before her book was published.
We did not want an interview. We just wanted to talk to her but she was not allowed to do so. This obviously is not normal for a teenager.
Her face showed the strain she was confronting. Her doctors had done an excellent job of restoring her face and her jaw, disfigured by Taliban’s bullets. But signs of the damage were still there.
Malala returned to the United States this week but not to meet normal people. She is here on a book tour. Teenagers do not go on book tours.
This week, she appeared at Harvard University and on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” won a prestigious European human rights award, and narrowly missed the Nobel Peace Prize. Neither are not normal teenage activities.
Listening to her at the World Bank too was an electrifying experience. Her poise, articulation and passion impressed everyone. But her performance caused a girl in the audience to ask how she liked living as a celebrity. Malala said: “I have accepted this busy life for a reason. I want to promote education of every child.”
Shall we accept this as the correct answer and keep her constantly engaged in this fight against the extremists? I do not have an answer. Others may.
So let me focus on her performance at the World Bank.
Malala shared the stage with World Bank President, Jim Young Kim in a one-on-one presentation at the bank’s headquarters.
Malala told the audience that this week, she launched a book. “This book not only tells my story, but it tells the story of every girl who has been suffering from terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is about girls’ rights and I know and am proud to be a girl, that we girls can change the world,” she said.
Then she asked other girls in the audience: “Are the girls with me?” “Yes,” they shouted.
Dressed in a black head scarf and brightly collared shalwar-Kameez, she spoke with the confidence of a seasoned speaker. She also joked with the World Bank president, a medical doctor, telling him she would rather become a politician because “a doctor can only help someone who has been shot. If I become a politician, I can help make a tomorrow where there are no more cases of people being shot.”
Malala said that when she was living in Swat, she dreamed of setting up an organisation to build schools and educate children. “And now it is a great opportunity for me because people are supportive, you are supporting me and of course the World Bank is supporting me, I am hopeful.”
“Well, in preparation for your arrival we thought just about how we could support you so I am very happy to announce that we are making a $200,000 donation to the Malala Fund today,” Kim responded.
“I believe in the power of the voice of women. And then I believe that when we work together that it’s really easy for us to achieve our goal.”
She said when she was in Swat, only a few like her were speaking for this cause, but still their voice had an impact and now millions of girls were raising their voices.
“So I believe through our voice, through raising our books and our pens we can achieve all goals and as soon as possible, but we need to work hard for it and we need to work together,” she said.
During the conversation, the organisers asked Malala’s father to stand up and was applauded by all when he did.
So, yes, her performance impressed me, as it may have annoyed those who hate her for opposing the Taliban and their weird views.
But can we appeal to both the groups to give her some space? Some privacy? A normal life?
Can we also make an effort to understand that Malala is not just a pawn in this Taliban-versus-the-rest fight? She is also an individual.
