While Malala\u2019s courage in defying the Taliban\u2019s barbarism won her the admiration of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, her Pakistani detractors\u2019 criticism reflects the national malaise that young Malala has committed herself to fight. Hundreds of young Pakistanis, most of them supporters of cricket icon Imran Khan, have started the #MalalaDrama hashtag on Twitter to describe Malala as a tool of the evil West who is seeking to impose Western values on Islamic Pakistan. A few on Twitter even called for her to be charged with blasphemy, the catch-all accusation frequently used in Pakistan against those advocating anything but the most primitive ideas. Luckily, she now lives in Birmingham, England, after having come to Britain for medical treatment for her head wound.<\/p>\n
Malala began documenting life under the Taliban in 2009, after they took control in the Swat Valley of northwestern Pakistan and then tried to shut down her school. The Taliban and their Islamist supporters oppose education for girls, and their concept of education for boys is far from enlightened. A young village girl with little outside exposure, Malala wished to connect to the rest of the world. She says she was inspired by the Pakistani Benazir Bhutto, who became the Muslim world\u2019s first woman prime minister and was killed in 2007 by terrorists for challenging their ideas.<\/p>\n
By rejecting the Taliban\u2019s version of Islam\u201d\u201dwhich was being brutally imposed by force of arms\u201d\u201dMalala showed greater foresight than many of Pakistan\u2019s politicians, generals and public intellectuals who have gradually ceded space to extremist Islamists. She didn\u2019t buy into the propaganda description of the Taliban as a nationalist reaction to U.S. dominance or Indian influence, recognizing them as a menace that would set the country back several centuries.<\/p>\n