Malala Yousafzai and the post-9/11 politics of gender and governmentality

Abstract

Abstract: Malala Yousafzai was catapulted on to the global stage after she was attacked by Tehrik-e-Taliban militants while on her way to school in the Swat valley of Pakistan in October 2012. The attack against Yousafzai ignited debate around her status as a Muslim female school going-child and led to a global campaign for education rights for Muslim girls. This essay examines the conflicting narratives around Yousafzai in the international public sphere in order to develop a critical narrative on the politics of gender and governmentality after 11 September 2001. We locate Yousafzai within the frame of the global War on Terror and its relationship to Pakistan as a proxy state in global hegemonic politics and argue that as much as her entry on the global stage was presented as a victory for Muslim women that (a) nothing significant has shifted for them and (b) her celebration as an icon of freedom for Muslims is, in fact, intrinsically wedded to a discourse which utilizes gender equality in a utilitarian fashion to maintain a larger hegemonic system