Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai denounced by Pakistani schools group

A group of Pakistani private schools on Monday denounced Nobel peace laureate and girls’ education champion Malala Yousafzai as disrespectful to Pakistan and to Islam. According to the New York Times, the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which claims to represent 150,000 students, declared Monday as “I am not Malala” day. It also petitioned the government to ban the 17-year-old Pakistani ’s popular memoir, “I Am Malala”, claiming it offends Islam and the “ideology of Pakistan”.

We are all for education and women’s empowerment. But the West has created this persona who is against the Constitution and Islamic ideology of Pakistan.

Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation

The subject of threats in her home country, she currently studies and lives with her family in England. Last month she won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, sharing the award with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist for children’s rights. Widely admired in much of the world for her courage and advocacy, Yousafzai has been criticised heavily by some groups in Pakistan who accuse her of being a puppet of the West and pushing an agenda against the tenets of conservative Islam — and the Pakistani penalty for doing this is death. Monday’s denunciation of the teenager represented the most organised attack on her reputation in her homeland to date.

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