Inevitably, perhaps, conspiracy nuts and internet trolls have emerged from under their rocks to attack Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai.
Yousafzai was awarded the prize today in recognition for her courageous promotion of education for women in Pakistan. (She shares the prize with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.) In 2012, she was shot in the head by the Taliban, apparently for blogging in favor of education for girls. After a miraculous recovery, she deftly used the international attention to step up her advocacy.
But that’s not good enough for the trolls. Some Pakistanis have long resented the attention Malala has received—they argue she does her country a disservice by spotlighting its social ills.
Others even question her inspirational story, accusing it of being a ploy cooked up by the CIA or Mossad:
And then there’s a cohort of Pakistanis who would have preferred the prize go to Abdul Sattar Edhi, a well-known doctor and humanitarian. The hashtag #NobelPrizeForEdhi has scores of his supporters.
Edhi’s supporters are irked that Malala, just 17, got the prize ahead of the 86-year-old Edhi, who’s been running his foundation for over 6o years.
Satyarthi has not attracted as many haters, perhaps because he’s not nearly as famous—many who live in his New Delhi neighborhood have never heard of him. Nonetheless, some have alleged that his nongovernmental organization is not all that it’s cracked up to be.
Others are directing their displeasure toward the Nobel Prize committee itself, for playing politics with the award:
Still, there are plenty of people on Twitter that celebrate the accomplishments of both activists, and don’t see the point in picking sides.