Pakistan Needs A Malala Effect From Education To Sex

RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL January 4, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot at by the Taliban in October, was discharged from hospital in Birmingham, England just hours before I discussed Pakistan’s desperate need for a “Malala effect” with a journalist from Peshawar. And this extends from education to a healthier view of sex Syed Irfan Ashraf writes for Dawn newspaper and teaches at Peshawar University, told me in reference to the Indian protests against rape: “We had the courage to take up the Malala case but may not be able to protest on the streets about rape.”

Mr Ashraf, who is pursuing a doctorate in mass communications at the South Illinois University at Carbondale in the US, meant that Pakistanis, more than Indians, have a deep sense of shame when it comes to discussing sex and everything to do with it. It’s probably true that a South Asia index of sex and shame would put Pakistan at the very top – ie most furtive and ashamed that anyone is doing ‘it’.