Nabeela, A Little Known ‘Malala’ of Pakistan

Meet Nabeela, a 9-year old girl from Pakistan’s restive Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). Nabeela Rehman is little known in the world and not an international youth icon like her compatriot, Malala Yusufzai who has achieved a lot of fame, exposure, awards and accolades, something that few could have achieved at the age of 16 years. Whereas, Nabeela  has quietly travelled all the way to Washington from Waziristan with her father and brother to appear before United States Congress and get an answer to a simple question: Why is her grandmother not with her today?

The horror story of Nabeela goes like this; we were collecting vegetables when my grandmother called me inside. I saw drones and then heard the noise, dum, dum, dum,” Nabeela Rehman, 9, told the lawmakers and others who had gathered at the Rayburn House Office Building to listen to her and other survivors of her family. On 24 October, 2012, Nabeela was playing outside her home in Ghundi Kala, North Waziristan, when missiles hit her family’s fields. The drone strike killed Nabeela’s 60-year-old grandmother, Mamana Bibi, the village’s only midwife.

Nabeela tried to run, but her body was too badly burned. She had to be rushed to the hospital with shrapnel wounds. Her elder brother, Zubair, 13, was taken to Islamabad and then to Peshawar, for surgery to remove shrapnel from his leg. Nabeela’s little sister Asma, 7, has had problems hearing ever since.

“Everything went dark. I heard a scream. It could have been my grandma. I could not see. I was very scared and tried to run but could not. I felt something in my hand. It was blood. I was very scared,” Nabeela told the lawmakers.

It is worth mentioning here that, despite overcoming incredible obstacles in order to travel from their remote village to the United States, Nabeela and her family were roundly ignored. At the Congressional hearing where they gave testimony, only five out of 435 representatives showed up. There was no one to answer their question, and few who cared to even listen. President Obama, who met Malala at his Oval office, was spending the same time meeting with the CEO of weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Nabeela and Malala are equally innocent and victims of terrorism and counter-terrorism. The biasedness against Nabeela signifies the western approach in picking and framing the victim of their choice. Moreover, this implies the selective humane approach between the two victims; the latter one is being used by western propaganda machinery.

Nabeela and her family certainly do not meet the criteria for militancy. They’re innocent, and their lives are not worth any less than victims of terror groups like Teherike Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Western Supporters of Malala are often seen as ignorant to the plight of collateral victims of drone strikes. Supporting victims of Taliban does not mean that they should be abandoning the victims of deadly drone strikes.

Nabeela and Malala are two Pakistani girls born in restive regions of North Waziristan and Swat of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan. Malala, who is now 16, was shot in the head on 9 October, 2012, while riding a bus from school in her home town of Mingora. Malala was flown to England after the shooting for extensive surgeries to repair her skull. Joined by her family, she now lives in Birmingham, England, where she returned to school in March this year. Malala later became an icon thanks to the benevolence of western media and bigwig politicians. Malala rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala’s Wikipedia profile illustrates her overwhelming achievements in past two years; she has received 26 national-international awards and accolades since 2011 till date. A full page is needed to mention her achievements here.

Malala Yousafzai spoke before the United Nations in July 2013, and met with Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace. In September she spoke at Harvard University, and in October met with U.S. President Barack Obama and his family. Her Nobel Prize nomination petition was first signed by no less than Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

On the other hand, poor Nabeela returned her home in Pakistan without much fanfare. Nabeela, a victim of US drone strikes has not got the adequate western media coverage, shows selective, biased attitude of western media and governments. It showcases how the western media, governments, and elites differentiate between the two innocent victims of brutal terrorism where one is being created as an icon and the other is ignored to put the gory truth under carpet.

Malala’s reception at home has been somewhat more mixed. Pakistani daily Dawn columnist Huma Yusuf summarised three main complaints of Malala’s critics: “Her fame highlights Pakistan’s most negative aspect (rampant militancy); her education campaign echoes Western agendas; and the West’s admiration of her is hypocritical because it overlooks the plight of other innocent victims, like the casualties of U.S. drone strikes.” Journalist Assed Baig described her as being used to justify Western imperialism as “the perfect candidate for the white man to relieve his burden and save the native”. Malala was also accused on social media of being a Western stooge and a CIA spy.

Her book, I am Malala co-authored by prominent British Journalist Christina Lamb (Order of British Empire) is ranked second on Amazon’s best seller’s chart, is already banned in Pakistan’s private schools due to anti-Islam, anti-Pakistan content.  Renowned journalists — Ansar Abbasi and Talat Hussain — criticised her for showing a complete disregard for the sentiments of Muslims besides creating a doubt in their articles that a 16-year-old could actually write such an in-depth analysis on international relations.

Suffice it to say here that this teen age girl, Malala from a small town of Pakistan is ‘wittingly or unwittingly’ being used by western propaganda machine for their own benefits who have no love for Nabeela or millions of other Malalas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or elsewhere in Pakistan.

 http://radianceweekly.in/portal/issue/assembly-elections-outcome-will-reflect-peoples-mind/article/nabeela-a-little-known-malala-of-pakistan/