I AM MALALA: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE POLITICS OF PRODUCTION, MARKETING AND RECEPTION OF THE POST-9/11 MEMOIR

Abstract

The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed a simultaneous rise of human rights discourse and life narrations that tell stories of human atrocities. This has led to memoirs becoming useful conduits for rights awareness. The publication of I am Malala is driven by the same purpose, and Western readers have recognized in Malala Yousafzai’s memoir an obvious message about girls’ right to education. However, the reception of Malala’s book has been less celebratory in Pakistan than in the West. This difference points to the complex roles of post-9/11 audiences in making sense of an age that has witnessed the War on Terror concurrently with the universalization project of human rights. It is, therefore, pertinent to look beyond I am Malala as a straightforward human rights narrative, to critique the book as a commodity driven by the politics of its production, marketing and reception. Analysed in this light, the memoir raises different, but equally important questions about the role of the global publishing machine in the legitimization of areas of human rights concern. This essay aims to highlight how conflicting reader reactions in Pakistan and in the Western world shape this memoir’s conversation with human rights in the current climate of geopolitical tension.