Mick Hartley

"I Am Malala" will not be readily available in the author's home country, Pakistan:

“The Taliban will not lose an opportunity to kill Malala Yousufzai and those who were found selling her book will be targeted.”

And the bookshops are taking note:

A major book selling firm of Peshawar cancelled its ‘I am Malala’ purchase order the day the Taliban decree was published by local newspapers.

“Who can dare ignore their words, they will blow us up,” said a sales representative of the company.

Fear defines the choices people make these days in this city [Peshawar]. So many deaths and sufferings have been suffered at the hands of the forces of dread and doom that the people have developed the knack to acknowledge the expanding Taliban threat….

Music parties on weddings are not considered a good idea, these days. Numerous local musicians have either migrated to other areas in the country or gave up their profession. The people avoid open and frank discussions about matters relating to religion. Late night, travel is not considered safe to-and-from areas in close proximity to Peshawar.

The militants’ pronouncements hold sway over the people’s personal preferences and political thoughts. Sanity is losing space to fears of dread. An element of resilience,characteristic of brevity is there in public response to the Taliban threat. The submissive resilience is more of subjugation to the Taliban tyranny.

“Please don’t put that book (I am Malala) on sale here, we don’t want to get killed in an explosion at this place,” said a female customer, interrupting the salesperson when he was talking to another customer about the book store’s decision to cancel its initial order for 20 books.

Oddly, Dawn.com carried another Malala-related piece last week, by one Nadeem F. Paracha – Malala: The real story (with evidence). It's a….well, it's an odd one. And very funny. It's worth noting that the disclaimer at the top of the piece – "The following article is a work of satire and fiction and in no way attempts to depict events in real life" – was not there when it was first published. There was nothing to mark it out from the other straight news items. It was only when I got to the earwax bit that I realised this was not a lunatic rant from someone with a grudge, but a nicely-done satire. Anyway, it was good enough to fool Iran's Press TV…