“Its Very Good News” Malala Did Not Win Nobel Peace Prize

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/11/20913675-its-very-good-news-malala-didnt-win-the-nobel-peace-prize-pakistani-taliban?lite

                The Nobel Peace Prize was recently issued to the Organization for The Prohibition of Chemical Weapons instead of the Pakistani teen activist Malala.  About a year ago a member of the Pakistani Taliban shot her in her home village due to her campaign on teen women’s rights to education.  My initial reaction to this article was a little superficial and I found that the more I read into it the more my reaction started to change.  I first thought about how it is dangerous to be a human rights activist.  The freedom of speech liberties that we have here in America are sometimes taken for granted and freedom of speech in other nations is not always truly free.  Individuals like Malala who speak out against the norm in order to spark social reform put themselves at immense risk.  Groups often resist change even when the change is more equitable for all making fighting for human rights very dangerous. 

The article talks about how honorable and brave Malala was and how she should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.  During the time that I spent reading this article I shared the same sentiment but the more I read the more I started to realize something that is not as obvious as the initial theme of the article.  I realized that sometimes people who are honored and receive distinctions when fighting for human rights are not always the people who deserve it the most.  Malala put her life at risk in order to fight for what she believed in and I believe that she did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize due to the reactions that would ensue.  Groups such as the Pakistani Taliban would react in a very aggressive manner putting her life at risk so I believe that for this reason they decided not to award her the Prize.  As I said before those who are most deserving of praise are sometimes the people who cannot receive it.  I am not saying that Malala is an unsung hero because she does have her fair share of acclaim but I do believe that there are cases like hers where human rights activists cannot be recognized due to the nature of their work.  This is what stood out to me most after the material from the article had time to sink in and is the message that one should take away from something like this.