Two perfect ambassadors of peace
She says she does not hate the Taliban who shot her almost to death. She says that even if he stood in front of her right now and she had a gun in hand, she would not have shot at him in retaliation. This is the sort of mercy, forgiving and compassion that we learn from Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Buddha, she argues. Indeed, strong words of reconciliation and dialogue coming from a fragile teenage girl. She pronounced them at the youth UN summit last year. And even though she was nominated even then, Malala Yousafzai had to wait for another year to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But when she finally was, it was well earned. Perhaps much more deserved than many of her predecessors.
This time the Oslo committee took a good decision, and hardly controversial like some of its previous decisions (except maybe in her own home country). Because, no matter if Malala had come up with these words on her own or they were included in her speech by an experienced PR specialist, the 17 year old girl does genuinely live up to the words she is saying. Even when she was assaulted by a fundamentalist who shot her in the head, she did not allow herself to succumb to fear, or thirst for vengeance. Malala is indeed the perfect peace ambassador, exactly the type of person Alfred Nobel was imagining when he was introducing the award. Her selection by the Oslo committee may have restored some of its reputation, which has suffered somewhat in recent years - first with the choice of Barack Obama (even if we might be saying that only now, in hindsight), who was prematurely and undeservedly crowned with the laurels that he had not yet earned... and then by granting the symbolic award to abstract organisations like the EU or the anti chemical weapons organisation. The former, probably with the hope that Obama would be touched by the gesture and refrain from waging more wars worldwide (which didn't happen); the latter, in relation to the work of the WMD inspectors in Syria.
This decision sends another positive signal as well: Malala is a Pakistani girl from the Swat Valley, which is considered the Taliban citadel. In the perception of the international community, the image of long-bearded extremists coming from that exact same area is still very vivid and loaded. Now Malala has become the most world-famous counterpoint to that image. And not least importantly, she has done a great service to her faith. A Muslim girl spreads a peaceful message of Islam around the world, while extending a hand to other religions. Also, she could well become an example to emulate for many enlightened and moderate Muslims around the world, who may have found themselves helpless and speechless at the sight of the horrible atrocities committed by the extremist representatives of their faith. Now they will have a real chance to speak up and assert their point of view more boldly, and make themselves heard.
Also important is the fact that this year's Nobel Peace Prize choice is a signal to all governments in the South Asian region. Because the other laureate who will be sharing the award with Malala comes from a country that has been at war with Pakistan over Kashmir for decades. It is the 60 year old Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi, a vastly popular fighter against children's exploitation, and a devout Gandhi follower. This choice is meant to tell us that it is time that the feud between India and Pakistan be brought to an end, because there are much more important problems, like education, and children protection, that could and must be dealt with in cooperation, and in a peaceful way.
I'm sure this peace prize will be defining Malala's life in the days to come. And this is not an easy task to live up to, especially for a girl that young. The expectations for her will be even higher than until now. And the danger for her life will be increased even more, now the threat coming from all sorts of extremist circles. It will be almost impossible for her to have a normal life from now on. What remains is to hope that she will overcome these hardships as well. Because Malala's example, and Satyarthi's work, are essentially an enormously inspiring ideal to emulate, in that they are building a bridge that hopefully leads from strife and suffering to a world that is at least a tad less bad than it used to be before they showed up.