"Brand Malala" Response Prep

Jaleel Chahyeb

Dania Adra

English 203

25-09-2015

"Brand Malala" Text interpretation.

Carol Anne Grayson, the author of this text, wrote about Brand Malala's traumatic experience with the Taliban army in Pakistan.

Grayson starts off by explaining how the social media affected Malala in many different ways.  She says that the media can interpret terrorism in many different ways. There has been many cases of the same sort but not many have got the same attention.  Grayson states in the text, Brand Malala's "father Ziauddin owns 'for profit' schools which 'just happen' to be high on the agenda of Gordon Brown, global envoy for education at the UN"(paragraph 09).  She has got so much attention that there is a Malala book, Malala the film, Malala the award nominee, Malala the portrait, all by the help of the world's biggest PR company.  Brand Malala is turning into a celebrity.  We can see how Grayson was being sarcastic about Malala winning the Nobel prize in paragraph 16.

The author doesn't use much emotion in her text but she does describes her situation. Grayson describes her situation by stating a sentence said by the artist Jonathan Rao, "I guess I was worried that she was probably a pawn in bigger game and was being unduly influenced by the people around her"(paragraph 10).

Grayson then compares Malala to another Nobel prize nominee, Rigoberta Menchu, saying that they both had social leverage behind their success.  Logically Malala isn't the only person to be traumatized by an experience of this sort, but she is one of few who have gotten a Nobel peace prize and I don't think it was because of her social connections.

Ethically Malala is a brave young role model. Malala shouldn't be judged by how much help she has gotten to become this famous, but by the peace she plans to apply to world.

Work cited

            Grayson, Carol Anne.  “”Brand Malala”: Western Explotation of a Schoolgirl”.  Shifting narratives.  Zane S. Sinno, Lina Bioghlu-Karkanawi, Dorota Fleszar, Najla Jarkas, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer M. Nish, Rima Rantisi, and Abir Ward.  Mazraa, Beirut:  Center for educational consultation and Research, Educart, 2015.  Print.