Authorities in Pakistan have seized textbooks that listed Malala Yousafzai as an ‘important personality’, apparently for her ‘controversial views’ on Islam. The school textbooks were confiscated in Punjab province.
The Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) confiscated the school textbooks meant for grade 7 students, published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The textbook contained a photograph of Malala Yousafzai along with that of military officer Maj Aziz Bhatti, killed in the 1965 war against India.
Along with the activist, page 33 of the book included included Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, poet Allama Iqbal, educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, first prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan and philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi in its list of important personalities. Apparently, the board has earlier denied it permission for publishing.
Meanwhile, the All-Pakistan Private Schools Federation has decided to launch a documentary on the Nobel prize winner to ‘expose’ her before the youth. The president of the organisation, Kashif Mirza, said, “Through this documentary film ‘I am not Malala’, we will tell 20 million students in 200,000 private schools across the country about her controversial views on Islam, marriage, pursuing of Western agenda.”
“The idea behind this is we want to expose Malala among the youth so they do not get impressed by her so-called story of struggle for women rights,” he said at a press conference.
“Malala has attacked the institution of marriage and family structure by advocating that people should live in sin. No one can justify Muslims living together without marriage as it is strongly condemned in Islam,” he added.
“This book is written at the behest of western forces that used Malala for their ulterior motives. Malala has declared Islam and Pakistan’s army as ‘militant’ in her controversial book. She also criticised Quranic verses about two women’s testimony being equal to that of a man and also about the four witnesses in a rape case,” he said of her autobiography ‘I am Malala’.
Malala Yousafzai, in the past, has been criticised by Indians as well for mouthing off platitudes regarding Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, where she subtly toed the Pakistani narrative on the matter. She has also been criticised for maintaining a stoic silence over the forced conversion of Hindu girls in Pakistan.
