World cheers Malala Yousafzai, but Pakistanis ambivalent

One year after a Taliban bullet tried to silence Malala Yousafzai’s demand for girls’ education, she has published a book and is a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. But the militants threaten to kill her should she dare return home to Pakistan, and the principal at her old school says that as Malala’s fame has grown, so has fear in her classrooms.

Although Malala remains in Britain and her assailant is still at large, police say the case is closed. And many Pakistanis publicly wonder whether the shooting was staged to create a hero for the West to embrace.

Shortly after the attack, Pakistani schoolchildren filled the streets carrying placards with the words: “I am Malala.” A year later, a popular refrain is, “Why Malala?”

In Pakistan’s Swat Valley, the giant sign that once identified Malala’s school is gone. Rickshaws rumble to a stop as girls, their heads covered and faces obscured, scramble out and dash into the building.

The school made no plans to recognise the anniversary, although children in other parts of the country did. Teachers and students are afraid. Even a giant poster of Malala that once emblazoned the wall of the assembly hall has been removed.

Children scrambled to hide from the camera and the school principal, Selma Naz, spoke quickly and in hushed tones.

“We have had threats, there are so many problems. It is much more dangerous for us after Malala’s shooting and all the attention that she is getting,” said Naz. “The Taliban are very dangerous. They have gone from Swat, but still they have a presence here. It is hidden, but it is here. We all have fear in our hearts.”