No country for Nobel heroes

The world’s youngest Nobel laureate arrived in Islamabad on Thursday on a four-day visit to Pakistan, the first time she has set foot in her country for five years. It was a deeply emotional moment for her – a dream come true, she said through tears at the reception given for her at Prime Minister House. 
This was also an emotional occasion for many of her fellow Pakistanis. They have cheered Malala’s every accomplishment on her remarkable journey to becoming a global icon for girls’ education, and despaired of her ever being able to return to the country because of frequent threats to her life made by extremists. 
Malala can justifiably be described as the most famous Pakistani in the world, and for all the right reasons. But her story illustrates much of what bedevils this country, and the conflicted narrative that feeds its sense of perpetual victimhood on the international stage. 
Barely a teenager when the Pakistani Taleban banned girls’ education in Swat, Malala began writing a diary for the BBC from her home in Mingora, the valley’s largest city. On October 9, 2012, Taleban gunmen stopped her school bus, shouted “which one is Malala?” and then shot the 15-year-old in the head for her activism.  Two other schoolgirls were wounded in the attack, but as the most seriously injured Malala was airlifted to the UK for emergency treatment. 
Until now, security threats had prevented her from even visiting Pakistan. 
Meanwhile, she has been feted by world leaders, been showered with the world’s the most prestigious accolades and tirelessly continued her advocacy around the globe for the right of girls to be educated. 
However, against all logic, and dismissing her youth and the suffering she has endured on her road to recovery, some sections of Pakistani society have consistently directed vicious invective against her, questioning her “motives” and those of the world in lauding her. 
Blinded by a simplistic, binary worldview – even as they crave a more positive international image – they see conspiracies where they should see courage, cast aspersions where they should celebrate a Pakistani who represents the best among us. 
Then again, Pakistan has always had a “difficult” relationship with its heroes. Our first Nobel laureate, the renowned physicist Dr Abdus Salam – a member of Islam’s minority Ahmadi sect – was also a lightning rod for some of this society’s worst impulses. 
The honour he brought his country went unacknowledged in his lifetime, and even after his death, his achievements have been subsumed by prejudice against his faith. His desire to establish a top-notch scientific institute in Pakistan remains unfulfilled. 
Only societies devoid of vision treat their best and brightest with such indifference and even contempt. For that to change, the leadership of this country must emphatically express its pride in its Nobel laureate and support her mission by ensuring that every girl in Pakistan gets an education. Meanwhile, welcome home Malala. Come again soon.