Yesterday Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai made history when she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The 17 year old education activist survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistan Taliban in 2012. She was wearing her school uniform, sitting on the school bus among other children, when she was shot in the head at point blank range.

The attack caused widespread revulsion here in Pakistan and around the world.

Since then Malala has become an international poster girl for education campaigners and children and women’s right campaigners in the west. Her face and name is known to millions.

Malala Yousafzai delivers a statement after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in Birmingham library yesterday. She won the prize jointly with children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi of India Photograph: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA



But here in her homeland, the girl whose desire to go to school almost left her dead, the child who went to the White House and urged Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan – telling the US president how his drones fuel terrorism and kill the innocent victims - is viewed with widespread suspicion and lingering and deep resentment.

Malala is viewed by many as a stooge of the west, a young woman being used to push a message for the US and foreign powers. One frustrated father of a nine year old girl told me “Sadly, people are not ready to accept that Malala is Pakistan’s pride.

I strongly believe my daughter, like Malala, has got immense talent, capable of doing anything and achieving anything she wants, but I also strongly feel she is living in a wrong country.”

Within an hour of Malala being announced the joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, I received a flurry of text message from friends across Pakistan. One man sent me the following message: “She’s a fake, she never got shot in the head and there’s no such thing as the Taliban.”

Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud in the northwest Pakistan. Mehsud was killed in a drone attack in 2013. Photograph: A MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images



Another friend, a woman messaged me: “I wish the world would stop talking about this girl. There are many Malala’s in Pakistan and all around the world – why don’t the Americans and British talk about those girls?”

Malala Yousafzai poses with five Nigerian girls, who escaped after being abducted from their Chibok school by Boko Haram. (LtoR) Rebecca Ishaku, Kanna Bitrus, Hauwa John, Hauwa Musa and Hawa Alhl’ama Photograph: ISAAC BABATUNDE/AFP/Getty Images



I asked one Pakistani friend if she felt proud of Malala winning a Nobel. She responded: “This is a tricky question that isn’t easy to answer. It’s complicated.”

Pakistan’s relationship with Malala is indeed complicated. Its a relationship that speaks volumes about how the west is perceived here. Malala is a mirror through which Pakistani’s are forced to view themselves and a mirror that reflects back how much of the world views Pakistanis.

One man told me last year, “to the west we all look like terrorists and to us all of you look like invaders who want to kill us and destroy our lives and countries.”Another friend from north west Pakistan said: “There is nothing I can do to convince the west that I am not what they think I am or what they fear me to be. I am not a terrorist, I am not a woman hater. I no longer care how they see me.”

Since the launch of the so called ‘war on terror’ more than 55,000 Pakistanis and counting have been killed in acts of terrorism. Women, men and children killed in places of worship, in schools, in markets as they went about their daily lives. Hundreds have been killed in US drone strikes in the north west of country, suspected militants tangled together with the innocent.

An estimated 25 million school age children are missing an education in Pakistan – at least 13 million of them are girls.

Among all the other emergencies we have in Pakistan is a growing education emergency. Children continue being denied their basic human rights – the right to learn. Girls’ schools continue being targeted by militants, schools are blown up, teachers continue to be threatened.

Children, displaced by fighting, in an Islamabad school. The Taliban is just one of many obstacles Pakistani girls face. Others include poverty, harassment and the government’s failure to prioritise education. Both sexes suffer but girls have lower rates of literacy and school attendance (AP Photo/Nathalie Bardou) Photograph: Nathalie Bardou/AP



My own mother only received an education after she was attacked by a dog in her village she was eight or nine years old and her foot became infected by the bite. Her family were too poor to provide her with proper medical treatment.

Her uncle who lived in Rawalpindi, a highly educated and well-connected man happened to pass by the village and saw the state of my mother’s foot. He told my nan that he would take his niece to a doctor.

Once they reached Rawalpindi, her uncle realised she was bright and had potential and decided rather than returning her to a life of harsh poverty in the village, she would stay with his family so she could go to school. Mum went on to train as a teacher in the UK and spent more than 20 years teaching.

Earlier today she called me and was one of the few who was congratulating Malala on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Mum said “I feel happy for Malala and for Pakistan.”

I smiled when I heard those words and thought about that child and the dog that changed her life. Another girl who just wanted to go to school.

@shaistaaziz