Why is Malala such a polarising figure in Pakistan?

Malala has returned to Pakistan for the first time after she was shot almost six years ago. While many, including state officials, have welcomed her, there are also some who remain suspicious, evencelebrating "anti-Malala day". It seems she has as many detractors as she does fans. 

In October 2017, she was trolled online forwearing jeans. Earlier, in May 2017, a Pakistani minister claimed the attacks on Malala were staged. She went on to name a number of young women from Pakistan - particularly those showing academic excellence - calling them "not Malala". And when Malala's autobiography was published, the chief of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, Kashif Mirza, noted that while the 152,000 private schools in the federation had supported Malala when she was shot, they had now decided to ban her book: she "was a role model for children, but this book has made her controversial ... Through this book, she became a tool in the hands of the Western powers".

In Western contexts, such anti-Malala sentiments are read as representing the pre-modern sensibilities of Pakistanis. Any critique of Malala is presumed to be a critique of human rights, and since human rights are the dominant vocabulary for justice at the current moment, expressing discomfort about Malala automatically signals an anti-women's rights disposition. We, therefore, findarticles such as Why Pakistan Hates Malala in Western media outlets, that traffic in ideas about Pakistanis being conspiracy theorists, jealous, and/or inhospitable toward women/girls.

What is needed, instead, is a nuanced engagement with anti-Malala sentiment, so it does not simply become further fodder to (re)cast Pakistanis and Muslims as intolerant. Significantly, understanding anti-Malala sentiment provides opportunities for us to become more astute about the politics of her representation in Anglophone media cultures, which I believe drives much of this sentiment in Pakistan. 

In other words, we have to analyse how she is represented, what elements of her life are discarded to curate a figure that can be glorified in the West, and the consequences of such knowledge-making practices.