ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A network of private schools Monday unleashed a public attack on Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Nobel laureate, in the most concerted assault yet on her reputation in her home country.
The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which claims to represent 150,000 schools across Pakistan, declared that Monday would be “I am not Malala” day and urged the government to ban her memoir, “I Am Malala,” because it offended Islam and the “ideology of Pakistan.”
“We are all for education and women’s empowerment,” said Mirza Kashif Ali, the organization’s president. “But the West has created this persona who is against the Constitution and Islamic ideology of Pakistan.”
The public denunciation of Yousafzai, 17, who has been hailed as a figure of courage, reflected how differently her celebrity has been received in some parts of Pakistani society — even after she jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, the Indian child rights activist.
Abroad, Yousafzai is revered for continuing her impassioned advocacy of education and girls’ rights after being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012. She is studying in Britain.
But in her homeland, Yousafzai divides opinion. While some Pakistanis have lionized her as a national hero, others portray her as a Western stooge.