Pakistanis Can’t Decide: Is Malala Yousafzai a Heroine or Western Stooge?

[amosharvey]

Pakistani Girl, a Global Heroine After an Attack, Has Critics at Home

Comments

[bellichka]

I think the West likes Malala and has latched itself onto her because it fits our narrative of what that region of the world is like - violent barbarians who treat women as second-class citizens to the point of not even allowing them an education. Is it accurate? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But she can definitely be used as a prop of "see? This is what we're fighting against. This is why we're justified in our involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And she agrees with us!"

[maynardsong]

Didn't she herself make it clear that using drones was bad though? Obviously she doesn't "agree" with us.

[mimblexwimble]

The media's managed a fair amount of suppression though. She's talked about socialism, drones, all sorts of things the West doesn't like, quite a bit, and this is one of the first times it's been publicized. People think Malala loves the West, instead of realizing she is absolutely against Western Imperialism. Just yesterday I saw a comment stating that they thought Malala was born a Muslim to inject spirit into the "oppressive religion." That's basically what the public is getting from media coverage, even when they mention that she is against drone attacks - that Malala is anti-Islam, that she is anti-Pakistan. And that all apparently means she's pro-West...

[synekdokee]

West doesn't like socialism? As a European, I am shocked by this information.

[mimblexwimble]

Sorry, should have specified America there. Things the US doesn't want to hear about.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Come on now, the US are the only Western country in existence.

[maynardsong]

You guys across the pond are better about socialism, yes, but are you above the other stuff? The islamophibia? The idea that brown women need to be saved from brown men?

[mistress_siana]

Huge parts of Europe opposed the war in Iraq, though. Europe is as guilty of islamophobia as the US, but fuck, the comments to this post have a big problem with conflating Western and American.

[maynardsong]

To be honest, I don't think the rest of the West gets lumped in with the US /enough/. I still remember a post on here some two or three years ago about the checklist of American privileges, and hated it; the US hardly has a monopoly on imperialism and violence. Look at the UK and France. (And on top of that, Americans usually DON'T have guaranteed health care, or access to mass transit. Americans /suffer/ from the effects of inequality. Why aren't guaranteed quality health care no matter your station and access to quality public transit listed as Western European privileges? "I do not fear that my government will neglect me in my time of need just because of my circumstances.")

[mistress_siana]

I don't remember that list, but not every political reality can sufficiently be described in terms of privilege. I absolutely consider myself privileged for having had access to health care in every country that I've lived in, and that is precisely why I don't want Europe lumped in with the US. The point is simply that talking about how the West opposes socialism is ridiculous and untrue, as is talking about 'Western liberals and their love for Obama' and 'the Western war in Iraq', all things I've seen over the past few days. It has nothing to do with privilege, it's just counterproductive if we want to talk about certain issues

[redstar826]

Yeah, I read somewhere that the White House's own statements about her visit with Obama completely left out her statements about drones.