Hardly an ennobling choice

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to teenager Malala Yusafzai has definitely made Pakistanis proud. They have got this rare chance of gratification only for the second time since the inception of their country, after physicist Professor Abdus Salam won this prestigious award in 1979 for his research. One acknowledges the fact that the price paid by Malala was quite hard for a teenager. However, the issue that many other girls have also toiled equally hard, but their contributions have been ignored by the West also remain valid. Over the years little Pakistani heroes have shown determination to save their schools and the country from terrorists. Who can forget, Aitzaz Hasan, a 15-year old boy from Ibrahimzai village near Hungu town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, who sacrificed his life to save his schoolmates from a suicide bomber, on January 6, 2014. The teenager noticed the bomber outside his school just when the attacker was planning to press the trigger. He embraced the man and dragged him as far away from the school as he could with his little hands, before the man blew himself along with the boy. He saved the lives of some 2,000 students. The government of Pakistan nominated the deceased young boy for Sitara-e-Shujaat (Medal of Bravery), for his great sacrifice. But he and his family continue to remain off the international radar.

Questions are being raised about why he didn't get even a fraction of the attention that Malala received. Is it a selective sense of choice that Western media outlets have or was his sacrifice any less? There are many who believe that recognising Malala's efforts is good. Because she stood up to the bad boys in the worst of times. But so much has changed in last two years, even in Malala's own hometown. Highlighting what she went through, two years back, somehow belittles the efforts that have been made to make those areas fit for other Malalas to live in freedom. Thus the peace that both the government and the people of her country have worked so hard to bring to this soil has gone unnoticed.

Also in the din of Malala’s soundbytes, the Western media forgets Nabila Rehman and her family even though she too belonged to the same war-torn north Pakistan. Malala was attacked on October 9, 2012 — because she wanted to go to school — by the people who did not find her demand very convincing or, as they would call it, 'Islamic'. Only two weeks later, on October 24, 2012, an old woman from a family similar to Malala's, or may be even simpler and poorer, took her grandsons and granddaughters to teach them okra harvesting; she never returned home. An Amnesty International report published in 2013, lists the old woman, Momina Bibi, among the 900 people killed in drone attacks during 2012 and 2013. Nabila's father raised a question during their meeting with the US lawmakers: “What was my mother's mistake?” The media reported that the drone targeted a car, but the victim's family claims there was no road alongside their house. 

What is the difference between these two girls and their stories? One suffered at the hands of those who want to bring their customised version of Islam to the country Malala and Nabila lived in, without caring about the lives taken and affected in this not-so-holy quest. The other is the victim of the drone that was supposed to help them get rid of the likes of those who tried to kill girls like Malala. The confirmed number of casualties in drone attacks, as of February 2014, in Pakistan, is 3,346; the human rights' organisations claim that the official death toll is lot less than the actual body count. When the vision is blurred by blood, it is hard to decide whom you love and whom you do not.

Braving military rule for most of the 66 years since independence, Pakistan has been struggling for a strong and meaningful democracy. Yet, more often than not, the people of Pakistan have been practicing their democratic right to disagree with each other. Lately, politicians, media, clerics and the newly awakened youth are learning to disagree with each other without raising hackles or taking up guns. Malala’s incident that made her a hero and now secured her the Nobel Prize has been unabashedly exploited by the media and politicians to serve their vested interests. Malala, she is now a Nobel Laureate!

While some people look up to Malala because of her courage and for sticking to her guns, there are some others who do not appreciate the glory and attention she has got. Whenever we talk about Malala, we must remember the many burnt schools and the bombed school buses. The question that many ask is: Was Malala the only one who was trying to get to the school despite the threats that girls' schools were receiving? If not, then why is Malala the only one to be recognised? Although Malala was the prime target in the attack of 2012, there were at least two more girls who were injured along with her. Does anyone remember their names? No. Why not?

The debate goes on. However, one thing is clear: that Malala won this prize for peace and peace is what this region needs badly. No war is holy enough to terrorise little girls like Nabila and Malala. Nor does any war justify the bloodshed of children like Malala and Aitzaz, be it in the name of Islam or in the war against terrorism. 
 
The author is a journalist based in Pakistan