“For many in Pakistan, Malala has come to symbolize everything they imagine they hate about the West,” said Nida Kirmani, a professor of sociology at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. “For others, she is a symbol of women’s rights and resistance against Islamist forces,” she added. In 2012, Taliban fighters attempted to assassinate Ms. Yousafzai on a bus returning from school after the B.B.C. Last month, in an interview with British Vogue magazine, Ms. Yousafzai, pondering where her young life may head, questioned the need for marriage, triggering a backlash in Pakistan. “I still don’t understand why people have to get married,” she said, according to the article.

Source: International New York Times July 16, 2021 17:15 UTC