An association of Pakistani schools held an “I am not Malala” day on Monday, condemning young Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai for what it called her support for controversial novelist Salman Rushdie.

The 17-year-old has been hailed around the world for standing up for girls’ rights to education, but the response to her in Pakistan has not been universally positive, with some seeing her as a “Western agent” on a mission to shame her country.

The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation last year barred its members from buying Malala’s memoir I am Malala because of what the group said was its “anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam content.”

It said the book, written with British journalist Christina Lamb, was too sympathetic to British novelist Rushdie.

Mirza Kashif Ali, the president of the schools’ federation, said in a statement it was “clear that Malala has nexus with Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin, and also has alignment with Salman Rushdie’s ideological club”.

He said walks, seminars and press conferences were held to highlight the “I am not Malala” day.

Malala’s book describes her life under the Taliban’s brutal rule in northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley in the mid-2000s. — AFP