COURAGE is not a rare quality in Pakistan. Adversity that would break most individuals has produced some of our finest — human rights activists, journalists, not to mention ordinary people fighting against formidable odds.

But Malala Yousafzai is a special case; it’s hard to find such courage in a 17-year-old coupled with a clarity of thought and an eloquence that can make cynics catch their breath and the world sit up and take notice.

Yesterday, Pakistan’s braveheart won the Nobel Peace Prize, giving a nation starved of glad tidings and buffeted by crises on multiple fronts, a reason to celebrate.

By awarding the prize to an education rights activist, the Nobel Committee has delivered a symbolic rebuke to the forces of regression typified by the likes of the Taliban, Boko Haram, and the Islamic State that seek to impose a system in which, aside from a slew of other depredations, children — particularly girls — would be denied the right to education; in effect, deprived of a future.

From a young girl simply wanting to go to school in Swat Valley during the savage rule of the Pakistani Taliban, to a global icon who represents the millions of children out of school in the world, whether for reasons of war, militancy or state neglect — Malala’s story is inspirational on many levels.

Even after militants shot her in the head in October 2012 — a shot that veritably rang out across the world — for consistently propagating girls’ education, she did not waver. In fact, the near-fatal attack boosted her profile, although she had to move abroad for treatment and for security reasons. Since then, many international accolades have come her way, including the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Malala’s latest award, while undoubtedly prestigious for Pakistan, should also make us reflect on how the state has failed in its obligations towards the people in many ways.

Purveyors of intolerance and bigotry have been tolerated for too long here. Malala’s own struggle was forged in this environment; the fact that she has to remain abroad testifies to the continuing potency of these forces. And lest we forget, our first Nobel prize winner, Dr Abdus Salam, died away from home, his magnificent achievement ignored in Pakistan, only because he was an Ahmadi. And then there’s education.

With five million children aged five to nine out of school, there is no place better than Pakistan to further Malala’s cause in a meaningful way.

Finally, the fact that the joint peace prize winner is an Indian, Kailash Satyarthi, also for work in child rights, highlights the commonality of issues between India and Pakistan; it would serve their people well if these could take precedence over politics.

As Malala has said so succintly, “I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.”

Published in Dawn, October 11th , 2014