MALALA YOUSAFZAI would have been an appropriate recipient of the Nobel peace prize and at the age of 16 she would have been its youngest laureate. But her admirers should be not be too disappointed that the award went instead to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, whose inspectors are about to go into action in Syria. For the Western world, and indeed for many of her fellow Muslims, Malala is an extraordinary example of disinterested courage in the face of theocrats who practise tyranny by claiming a monopoly on religion and religious law. She was already famous at the age of 11 as the writer of a blog for the BBC Urdu service, giving an impression of life under the rule of the Taliban in her native Swat Valley. Along with the routine details of her existence, she described the Taliban's crackdown on culture, music and on schooling for girls. Just over a year ago, she was shot in the head and neck as she was returning home on a school bus. She was eventually taken to Birmingham in England for medical treatment and has settled there.

She has been showered with accolades. Gordon Brown, a former British prime minister, has cited her story to back his campaign for global education, and she has regularly appeared on lists of the world's most important movers and shakers. Only this week, she received the European Union's Sakharov prize for human rights. If she had capped that achievement today by joining the ranks of Nobel laureates, it might have been a fitting way to mark the United Nations Day of the Girl.

But people who really wish Malala and her cause well should be more relieved than let down. The Nobel Prize has not always brought blessings to its recipients. Mistakes made by Barack Obama as America's commander-in-chief will be judged even more harshly because he was granted the award in 2009 as a kind of down-payment before his presidency had really got going. Mikhail Gorbachev will probably go down in history as a peace-maker, but the award (in 1990) did nothing to enhance his domestic standing which was in freefall at the time. And whatever history has to say about Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho, garlanded in 1973, it will hardly describe them as doves of peace.

Meanwhile in Northern Ireland, anybody can tell you about the "kiss of death" effect that the peace prize can easily have. David Trimble and John Hume are still, on balance, regarded as worthy recipients of the award (in 1998), but they and their parties (respectively, moderate Unionist and moderate Irish nationalist) have long since vanished from centre-stage. The award in 1976 to Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the "peace women" who led their Protestant and Catholic sisters in marches against violence, had an even darker effect; the more they were feted internationally, the less credibility they had at home—especially after they decided to give themselves a minimum of security by keeping the prize money. "Have you heard, the peace women are paying an official visit to Belfast soon...." That was one of the cynical comments that did the rounds.

Ms Maguire has regained prominence recently, with a voice that challenges and disturbs by adopting an unusual mixture of causes. A devout Catholic, she opposes capital punishment, abortion and euthanasia as assaults on the sanctity of life. She has strongly criticised Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and supported Mordechai Vanunu, the technician who leaked details of Israel's nuclear programme. She has deplored threats by President Obama to use force against Iran. She and two fellow laureates—South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Aldolfo Pérez Esquivel of Argentina—have spoken in favour of Bradley Manning, the American document-leaker.

Ms Maguire once again commands attention; but it took her quite a long time to recover from the immediate effects of the prize, which were negative. Does 16-year-old Malala really need that? She too comes from a part of the world where international accolades can cause jealousy and cynicism as well as admiration. So she may be better off without the big prize. In any case, Malala will continue to pile up various honours and distinctions; and as with Ms Maguire, there is probably a good chance that she will use her fame to say things that disturb and provoke people, even those who are lining up to admire her.