Internationalisation of the ‘Malala phenomenon’: Need to rediscover the role of female promoters of peace in Pakistan
Should Pakistan take pride in the Nobel Prize for Peace that was recently awarded to the young Malala Yousafzai? Should it in parallel regret the scant attention the ‘international community’ has given to the numerous other female and male civil society figures who have also worked for an enlightened education system and thus for the promotion of peace? There is no doubt that dramatic circumstances thrust Malala Yousafzai into an international limelight of which she had never dreamed. One could of course blame Western powers looking to sooth their conscience as they sought to avoid tackling head-on the terrible consequences of the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Such an internationalisation of the Malala phenomenon should not, however, necessarily lead us to reject out of hand her contribution to efforts to improve the female condition. We wish in this first part to look at the path of this young Pakistani who dared (albeit under the guidance of an ambitious father) to make herself the advocate of literacy for girls. This will allow us to examine the context – often dangerous – in which Pakistani social workers act. The awards, that Malala Yousafzai has collected around the world, have  provoked, in her country of origin, a debate worthy of analysis. One needs to try to deconstruct the West’s portrayal of Malala; she was in a sense projected as the only actor of note in a country overwhelmed by religious obscurantism. It is easy to understand the anger this has provoked in Pakistan. A civil society battling valiantly to promote durable peace has little use for simplistic Western analysis to make its own critique of the political and strategic direction taken by successive governments in Islamabad (and Rawalpindi).

In addition, Western and Pakistani perceptions of the concept of ‘promoters of peace’ differ. The former presuppose an acceptance of enlightenment ideas that have, in fact, been betrayed during the colonial and post-colonial periods. The latter rightly consider that it is a matter of facilitating a progressive change in dominant collective mentalities. Our second section will then attempt to define the concept of ‘peace builder’ in a society that harbours a kaleidoscopic variety of conditions for women. We will also retrace the path of a number of women who have dedicated their lives to peace. Their respective contributions are steps towards the objectives of Resolution 1325 of the Security Council of the United Nations, even if the latter body remains dominated by Western interests whose policies has, ironically enough, on occasion jeopardised peace. This Resolution, adopted on 31 October 2000, calls for the political inclusion of female voices in conflict prevention and resolution. For the moment, this remains but an empty statement of intent, since not only are women often the most affected by conflicts, there tends to be a retreat into traditions during times of adversity. A last point requiring analysis is how best to promote social, political and economic changes that pave the way for both an increased number of women actors and a society receptive to their efforts.