`Human feeling is like the mighty rivers that bless the earth. It does not wait for beauty -it flows with resistless force and brings beauty with it ` George E liot MALALA`S varied and bemused detractors must be pulling their hair out, but there is no stopping the young lady from the salubrious climes of Swat as she prepares to put another prestigious award in her overfilled shopping cart.

The United Nations has announced Malala would get the Human Rights award on the 10th of this month making her share the honour with the likes of Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter. The significance of the award is such that it is awarded only once in five years.

Malala is indeed basking in anunstoppable wave of human feelings, no matter if her own people seem unjustifiably annoyed at her phenomenal rise to fame. She is our own Cinderella and Snow White; the subject of folklore made up of envy, jealousy and no less of unequalled prominence.

With fame comes its pitfalls, and hence a rejuvenated moral brigade in her country of birth is sparing no weapon in their arsenal to keep firing at the education activist.

`Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality,` so said Oscar Wilde.

An Urdu language newspaper of the far right that considers it sinful to print pictures of living beings recently went to ridiculous lengths to lend credence to a satire by Nadeem F. Paracha to suggest that Malala was indeed Jane, born in Hungary to Polish parents anddropped in Swat by imperialist agents after the events of 9/11.

`Malala`s ear wax is preserved with a doctor who carried out a DNA test on the same, and it must be true since the story was covered by a newspaper of the stature of Dawn,` the article concluded in bizarre twist to light banter.

Nadeem`s intended pun was thus cut to size in a country where October 11, 2013, is unlikely to be remembered as a significant landmark when one of her most impressive child missed being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, literally by a hair`s breadth if one were to go by the expectations spurred by the local and international media.

As peace conscious people around the world riveted their attention on the proceedings of the Nobel Committee, the day passed away quite listlessly in Malala Yousafzai`s home province. Evenin her hometown of Swat people cared little if the world was placing its bets on the 2013 winner.

If truth be told, it was least surprising since a visit to Swat this last July had found people by and large least fascinated and in fact more suspicious of Malala`s acts of bravado and her subsequent rise to prominence. This had also become quite evident when angry protests by students of Swat Degree College for Girls had forced the government into reversing its decision of changing the college`s name after Malala in the wake of attack on the child prodigy.

It is said that saints are little revered in their hometowns. This is particularly true of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where inter tribal rivalries, filial wrangling and jealousies figure in decisively no matter how sacred or earnest the cause might be. Malala, the eldest childof a lower middle class family, could be the victim of just such trivial considerations, if only for the time being.

Time is not far when Pashtuns around the world would realise that Malala`s entry on the centre stage was the best thing to have happened to them right at the time of the most daunting challenge ever to their combined identity.

Irrational antipathy to education, attacks on polio vaccinators not sparing even women folks, suicide bombings in bazaars and places of worship and brazen slaughters and kidnapping of innocent people during the last about one decade have besmirched the identity of the nearly 40 million Pashtuns, reintroducing them to even to the hitherto unwary world as the most savage fanatics.

It wasn`t in good taste hearing former President PervezMusharraf repeating to his attentive audiences, `It is true that all Taliban are Pashtuns but it is wrong that all Pashtuns are Taliban.` Unfortunately, Pashtuns did not have even a Rana Sanaullah in their ranks to stand up and blurt out that not all Taliban were Pashtuns either.

Pervez Musharraf was not alone in making presumptuous declarations about the genealogy and antecedents of the Taliban. The recent phase in the history of Pashtuns has brought out a whole array of politicians, columnists and self-styled analysts who appear to be bent on portraying Taliban specter as the new face of Pashtun nationalism.

Nothing can be farther than truth than this preposterous theory, but it remains unchallenged owing to lack of a suitable response by the present generation of Pashtun leaders and literati. Luckily, Malala has occupied that vacant slot, and quite forcefully and effectively at that.

During her recent visit to the US, Malala utilised every available opportunity to declaim that Pashtuns were peace loving folks and not terrorists. `Pashtuns want education for their daughters and sons,` she was seen and heard underlining the need in every speech at the numerous functions where her resistance was celebrated as a unique achievement.

To a discerning student of Pashtuns` past and present, Malala`s painstaking entreaties to the outside world about the predicament of her clansmen brings to light her inherent nationalistic streak and reminds one of the Red-Shirt leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan popularly called as `Bacha or Badshah Khan.

Bacha Khan who by a quirk of fate lies buried in a little known cemetery in Afghanistan also utilised the forum of `Khudai Khidmatgars` to focus on the education of Pashtun so as to preclude the possibility of their being consumed by the religious frenzy. Bacha Khan too faced resistance from his detractors who were out in force to scuttle his struggle, but he remained steadfast to the end.

Like the proponent of non violence of the past, Malala too could be seen to have already forgiven her tormentors.

Pashtuns must thank providence for gifting them with this young ambassador who is introducing her countrymen as humane and compassionate people deserving of help.

Malala`s parents must also understand that cumbering their young ward with too many portfolios will make the child more vulnerable to attacks from her critics and sceptics waiting in the wings. Time is not ripe for her to talk about the intriguing drama in Syria. The challenge back home is daunting enough to demand her undivided attention, and for her efforts to bear fruit she must complete her education.

Her precocity alone should have silenced those doubting Malala`s credentials. The way she comports herself in her meetings with the world leaders entitles her to her rightful status as the symbol of resistance during which thousands of men, women and children fell mercilessly to brutal fanaticism.

`My God, wasn`t that grace and confidence personified, says one of our most celebrated teachers of English Ziaul Qamar of Malala`s appointment with Queen Elizabeth. Malala might unwittingly have recharged the vastly exasperated nationalists; all that she needs to do now is to stay focused to help wash the lingering stigma that appears to have clung to the identity of her people.