Malala—how imperialist powers and their media lackeys are taking advantage of her

By now most people have heard of Malala Yousafzai/ملاله یوسفزۍ‎/ملاله یوسفزۍ‎. Most of the mainstream media is calling her “the bravest persons in the world” right now.

Malala is making the rounds and she has already published her own memoirs. Typical of what we read is this excerpt from CNN;

London (CNN) -- Pakistani girls' education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who has found international fame since being shot by Taliban militants last year, met with another icon Friday: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, invited the young activist to a reception at Buckingham Palace, where they met and chatted for a short time.

Malala, who was accompanied by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, presented the Queen with a copy of her newly published memoir, titled "I am Malala."

She said in that article she wants to support the right to education everywhere, even in the UK.

She was brave for defending her rights as a woman and her rights to an education. However, I can’t help the feeling that the Imperialist powers, such as the US and many of its allies, want to use her to justify their continuing war in Afghanistan and the drone strikes in Pakistan. So while I have nothing bad to say about Malala, after all she is literally a child at this time, I can’t help wondering if all the attention and adoration will really help her in the long run or if she will feel let down when the imperialist powers no longer need her.

Typical of the hype she has been through can be seen on ABC News video of her. The anchor gushes over what a great hero and that has been going on for about a week now.

If the Taliban did actually shoot her in the head, for any reason (and I have not been able to find their version of what happened. They used to have a web site, but it was closed years ago and I’m sure they have a hard time finding outlets for their views) it was a stupid thing for them to do. I have never been a fan of the Taliban, but any local group of people has a right to fight against imperialist troops that invade their nation.

It is unlikely that Malala actually wrote most of her book. Many celebrities use ghost writers to actually amass their stories and make them readable to the public. Also most people take a long time to write a book themselves. And she is a teenager which makes it hard to write a really long book with such a short lifetime.

The mainstream news, on the manor TV stations, many local TV stations and other news outlets have flooded us with heart-breaking stories of soldiers coming home and surprising their children and wives. The glamour is so strong you can cut it with a knife. But we need to keep reminding people that these military adventures are not necessary in the first place.

Malala is being used as a poster child to support US imperialism and we should make people aware of that. We don’t want to criticize Malala herself as she is not the one responsible for this campaign. She was sucked in by all the world adoration and like most normal teens, she was glad to be in the spotlight. We should point out that she will probably find herself discarded with yesterday’s trash when the imperialist powers don’t need her anymore.

It is a sad abuse of this person who does seem to genuinely want to stand up for women’s rights.

-សតិវ អតុ