The East and West Clash: An Analysis of Malala Yousafzai

For a long time in Pakistani history, women played the roles of housewives. Recently though, women are playing different roles in a changing world. Due to the socioeconomic conditions in Pakistan such as low wages, high unemployment rates, political instability, and inequality in social opportunities, women have formed a greater force of the working population. In difficult conditions, attitudes are changing about the need of women to aid change and development country. Now more than ever, Pakistani women desire education for a higher standard of living. With this changing world, women also are fighting back when they are pushed now more than ever.

One of these Pakistani women is Malala Yousafzai. What impresses most about this Arab activist is her young age, currently 17 years old but began pushing back against the Taliban as young as 11 years old when the Taliban banned girls from attending schools in her hometown in Swat Valley, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. With the aid of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Yousafzai kept a blog, letting the world know about the situation, drawing attention to the oppression of the Taliban.

With her power through voice and narrative came harsh consequences. The Taliban eventually tried to rid of Yousafzai’s voice permanently, shooting her in the head on a school bus. She survived, airlifted to a military hospital where doctors removed the bullet and treated her head wound. Tragedy turned to a greater strength as the media covered the assassination attempt, and now Yousafzai and her cause is known worldwide

Yousafzai’s story reaches both the eastern and western nations, bringing many different perspectives into play. How does this girl appeal to the west and the east? Can she get the east and west to agree to a certain level of feminism, or is she reinforcing a western view of her nation as oppressive and needing to be saved? The answer is as complex as the many perspectives themselves. To discover these answers, we must dive into analysis Yousafzai’s ideas and her actions. Then we must look into her resources, how media plays into her cause and even her assassination as tools. Lastly we will analysis are the reactions to her cause by both the east and the west, the awards she has won, and what we should learn from Yousafzai’s story.

Perhaps the first object of Yousafzai’s ideas and actions is to look at is her blog entries for the BBC about her life under the Taliban militants in January of 2009. She describes nightmares about the Taliban and fear of going to school; she wrote “Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taliban's edict. On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace...to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.” She writes this to a public audience, displaying herself as vulnerable by describing her fear while just walking home.

In another entry just two days after she stated, “I was getting ready for school and about to wear my uniform when I remembered that our principal had told us not to wear uniforms and come to school wearing normal clothes instead. So, I decided to wear my favorite pink dress. Other girls in school were also wearing colorful dresses. During the morning assembly we were told not to wear colorful clothes as the Taliban would object to it.” This innocent example Yousafzai tells her audience puts in her an innocent position. This story is not violent or brutal, but about little girls who are not allowed to wear colorful dresses. Her perspective is an honest and innocent one, as people worldwide can relate to dress codes.

Yousafzai’s blog entries were only the beginning of her activism. After the assassination attempt on her life, Yousafzai’s ideas and actions rose with her media coverage along with invitations and support from all across the globe. One of her many successful actions since the assassination attempt is the Malala Fund, a website which raises money toward the goal of getting education for girls around the world and raising their voices. The fund invests in building schools and community centered solutions such as mentoring programs. They’ve done extensive work in countries like Nigeria, Jordan, and Kenya.

On July 12, 2013, Yousafzai delivered a speech at the United Nations Youth Assembly on her 16th birthday. It was her first public speech since the assassination attempt on her life. The United Nations named the day, “Malala Day.” In her speech, she thanks God, and notes that he see’s everyone as equals. Yousafzai’s religion is Islam and she connects the Islamic God to her cause. She later says the Taliban misunderstand Islam for their own personal benefit, and that God is not a tiny, conservative God who points guns at people. She addresses everyone in the audience as “brothers,” “friends,” and “sisters,” bringing a sweet closeness to everyone she addresses. She said, “Malala Day is not my day,” and makes the speech not so much about her, but about everyone who is fighting for equal rights to education and those who need them. Perhaps the most touching part of her speech was when she showed compassion towards her enemies, the Taliban. She said, “I am not against anyone. Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I am here to speak for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists and extremists.” She later even says she does not hate the Talib who shot her. This move in her speech makes her saint-like in the face of her enemies. She focuses on her cause and nothing else. Despite her compassion, she still manages to make her enemies seem weak when she states that her enemies fear the power of women, education, books, and pens and that does not take away from what she said before because she still cares about them by wishing them an education. While making the Taliban seem weak, this part of her speech can inspire others by appealing to them that they have power that the Taliban fear.

Later in the same speech, Yousafzai combines history, religion, and people from different regions as things that have influenced her, she said, “This is the compassion I have learned from Mohammed, the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ, and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Khan, and Mother Teresa. And this is the forgiveness that I have learned from my father and from my mother. This is what my soul is telling me: be peaceful and love everyone.” Naming all these famous figures from different corners of cultures and regions is a move to bring people together. In her United Nations speech, Yousafzai’s obvious goal is to appeal to as many as possible.

Yousafzai has written books such as “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.” In the book, she uses her own story to inspire others. Within the first couple pages, one can tell it is written with a western audience in mind, as Yousafzai explains various parts of her culture to the readers. She was not alone in writing the book, as a British Journalist by the name of Christina Lamb helped her. While the book was first published in English for a western audience, the book spread worldwide, translated to many languages. The reactions to this book will be discussed later.

Yousafzai’s ideas and actions would never have succeeded so greatly without certain tools. None of this would have started if it was not for the internet which made the blog that put Yousafzai on a stage for the world to see, and put her in danger as the Taliban also noticed her voice. After the assassination, she still uses the internet as a tool for her cause. Her Malala Fund that was mentioned before is a website and has facebook and twitter pages which thousands of people follow. Activism has never been more easily accessible.

Internet was not her only tool though. By 2009 Malala began to appear on television and publically advocate female education. She was invited to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote her book and now the interview is on Youtube with more than one million views. She was interviewed by a Canadian Broadcasting Program called The National. She has been invited to speak at gathering around the world, and many are recorded and put on the internet for many people to have access. While the internet blog began her career as an activist, television spread news of her assassination like wildfire. Few things bring so many views as a tragedy. After living through the assassination, Yousafzai evolved from a tragic figure to a miracle. Then with her use of compassion, voice, and the cameras all on her, her fame grew so that anyone with a computer or television can know her name and cause.

It can be argued that Yousafzai’s most powerful tool in her activism was the assassination on her life. It was that assassination that brought the world’s attention upon her, and gave more proof that girls like Yousafzai were being victimized by the Taliban. In her United Nations speech, she said, “The Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends, too. They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.” This excerpt from her speech puts light on the fact that the assassination attempt only made Yousafzai’s cause and resolve stronger than ever. She transformed from the girl who blogged about how she feared to walk the streets and had nightmares about the Taliban to a composed speaker and brave survivor.

With Yousafzai’s media coverage and her assassination, she gained a lot of attention. But what sort of attention? Evidence shows a split of attitudes between the eastern and western nations. While the west welcomes Yousafzai and her ideas with open arms, in her home country of Pakistan, many see her as an enemy. This shines a light on a lot of feminist issues in Arab and Muslim countries today. These issues go as far back as colonialism, when the west orientalized the east and used them as a tool to increase their own sense of nationalism through showing off how they victimized their women.

Stated in the International Journal of Business and Social Science, a journal on Yousafzai stated, “She has shown more courage in facing down Taliban than Pakistan’s government and its military leaders.” This is an example of Yousafzai’s own fame making her country look bad. It is comments like this that are one of the things fuelling the collusion of perspectives on Yousafzai. Yousafzai is seen as greater than the countries leaders, putting Pakistan in a difficult position. Yousafzai’s words are seen as damaging to the country as it raises negative views on Pakistan.

The earlier mentioned speech Yousafzai had at the United Nations got a standing ovation by 500 education advocates around the world. She was described as a “hero” by people there. On the other end though, the Pakistani government did not comment on her speech while the Pakistani press backlashed against her. A Pakistani journalist by the name of Assed Baig wrote in the Huffington Post that though he once supported her cause, it had been taken cover by the “western savior complex.” He wrote “Malala is the good native, she does not criticize 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.” He claims that the west had killed more girls than the Taliban ever had. He proves even those like him who agree with Yousafzai’s cause in Pakistan are frustrated by the western influence. While Yousafzai’s voice may be strong, as long as the west keeps empowering her, she’ll also be seen as a political puppet.

Yousafzai’s book that was mentioned earlier, “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban,” had many reactions. While many were positive, describing the book as “fearless,” “riveting,” and is even compared to the Diary of Anne Frank in terms of a moving, true story of war by the Washington Post. There was negative feedback in Pakistan, as many private Pakistani schools have banned Yousafzai’s book. The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation believed the book to be disrespectful to Islam and to cause harm to people. The leader of the federation stated, “Pakistan is an ideological country. That ideology is based on Islam. In this book are many comments that are contrary to our ideology.” There is a strong idea in Pakistan that Yousafzai is an agent of west and against Islam and Pakistan, and to them, this book may be proof as she displays Islam and Pakistan as oppressive and thanks the west for taking care of her and supporting her.

Pakistan is not the only place that discusses Yousafzai’s cause as a negative thing due to its western influence. There are western perspectives that explore the damage the west has done to Yousafzai’s cause. In the Foreign Policy Journal, which has a purpose of delivering news with challenging narratives that differs from mainstream media, a man by the name of Matthew Snow wrote an article on how the west is to blame for Yousafzai’s assassination. The article discusses how Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin, sold her to the west for his cause as a school principle in Swat Valley. Snow argues that BBC, who had Yousafzai write the blog, capitalized on her writing and activism. He analyzed that the west’s greed for capitalizing on Yousafzai’s narrative is what led to her assassination. He claims that no one asserts responsibility. The father of Yousafzai is just as blamed for her assassination in the article as the western media, as Snow puts it, “Perhaps the most complicit unwitting conspirator was her own father who at every opportunity to protect his daughter, Ziauddin only raised her above his head to be better seen.” Perhaps the most daring argument Snow makes is that Yousafzai is not just used by her father and western media, but that she was manufactured by them. He claims that the journalists talked to Yousafzai so extensively, that they influenced her on what to concentrate on in her blog, on what to feel, and what to say. He says, “When the world should have viewed her as a child, they made her a symbol. Rather than protect her, the world exalted her. And when she thought the world was with her, the world made her a martyr.” This article challenges the perspective of how much agency Yousafzai had before her assassination and even currently as she is seen on television and raises money for equal education.

A similar but less pessimistic perspective to Snows is in chapter ten of a book called “Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East.” It argues that Yousafzai was crafted by the west as a figure to influence other Pakistani girls. It describes that the United States feared radicalization of the new coming generation of Pakistan as so few are educated. Pakistani children were seen as investments for American influence in the future, so Yousafzai was used as a seed to spread western influence to the younger generation. The use of drone attacks is also discussed. The chapter argues that young girls like Yousafzai are used as a justification for attack drones in Pakistan. Many Americans are said to believe that drone attacks could save the young Pakistani generation from the Taliban. The chapter quotes a journalist saying, “The greatest risk for violent extremists in Pakistan isn’t American drones. It’s educated girls.” This fits into the argument that Yousafzai is a political tool for the west to go against Pakistan. With that frame of mind in the west, the east pushes back against Yousafzai’s cause all the more.

Yousafzai has won tons of awards. The award she is most known for is the Nobel Peace Prize. At age 17, she has been the youngest recipient and second Pakistani who has won a Nobel Peace Prize in history. While there was praise, there were mixed views in Pakistan. One such view was of an editor for the Pakistan Observer newspaper, Tariq Khattack. In an interview with the BBC he said, "It's a political decision and a conspiracy. She is a normal, useless type of a girl. Nothing in her is special at all. She's selling what the west will buy." While most of her support and awards are out of Pakistan, Yousafzai has claimed at least one award in her home country such as the Sitara-e-Shujaat, Pakistan's third-highest civilian bravery award.

The conflicting reactions to Yousafzai are the products of a long political history between the west and east. Unfortunately, feminism and women’s rights has become a victim of nationalism. The moment the west praised Yousafzai, the east pushed back, as orientalism and colonization is still alive and feared today. What people should learn from the story of Yousafzai is that we live in a world where feminism and equal rights is so easily drowned out by conspiracy theories and bitterness between political agendas. We should no longer just see Yousafzai as just a symbol of hope, but as a lesson and example of how peaceful intentions can so easily be corrupted by conflict. If we hope for equality, we need a conversation that addresses the issues of political agendas and nationalism versus human rights.

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