TIME has floated an initial list of candidates for its Person of the Year award. The editors choose, of course, but they’ve also opened up polling through Dec. 12 to gather reader opinions.
Candidates include Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and Russian punk rebels Pussy Riot.
Tyrants get representation, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on the list. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who just flashed his dictator stripes, also gets a nod.
Among the political picks? Vice President Joe Biden (“His verbal flubs and foibles can make him a punch line for Republican critics and occasionally even irk his own boss”), Michael Bloomberg, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, President Obama, Mitt Romney, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).
Some of the left-field choices? Stephen Colbert, Undocumented Immigrants, and Sandra Fluke.
Here is how the polling is going thus far. Luckily, an especially worthwhile candidate is getting a good share of “definitely” votes.
Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Enemy No. 1 of the Taliban, is recovering in a British hospital after being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while going to school on Oct. 9. And that’s exactly what she was fighting for: the right to go to school, free of fear, free to achieve whatever she wants without being under the thumb of Islamist forces.
TIME writes that Malala “has become an inspiration not only in her native Pakistan — where the culture wars over women’s rights and religious diversity have taken many violent turns — but all around the globe.”
“Malala is now a first name that hundreds of thousands of people know. But in a way, hers is an even more moving story, because the saga is not just of a brave young girl but also of a father willing to risk local opprobrium to raise his daughter — not a son — as a proud example for the world.”
Today Malala made her first phone call — to Pakistani news anchor Hamid Mir, who was targeted in an assassination attempt yesterday, likely for giving so much coverage to Malala’s case (when she was out of their reach, the Taliban began targeting journalists who reported her story).
“Malala Yousafzai and her father just called me from UK and expressed their solidarity. Malala said that Insha Allah we will defeat terrorists,” Mir tweeted.
Yesterday, Malala topped Obama on Foreign Policy magazine’s list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers: she came it at No. 6, while the president was No. 7.
“The Taliban’s most fearsome enemy in Pakistan isn’t U.S. drones or the military’s tanks: It’s a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Malala Yousafzai’s tool of defiance? Her own bravery in speaking out for the simple idea that girls should have access to the same education as boys,” wrote FP. “That shouldn’t be a radical notion in 2012, but even as Pakistan bristles with roughly 100 nuclear warheads, up to 60 percent of women are still illiterate and two out of every five girls fail to finish primary school. Challenging the tyranny of those low expectations can get you killed in today’s Pakistan.”
Change in Pakistan will come from within, and it’s girls like Malala who will lead the way, fearlessly inspiring an entire generation. Make a statement to the TIME editors — vote Malala for Person of the Year.
Also read: Sandra Fluke, Person of the Year? Absolutely!
– you’re asking TIME to do something bold and newsworthym, which it hasn’t in years.
The Taliban is afraid of 15 year old girls.
NOW, et al., were very vocal about Fluke, but about Malala, I could hear crickets chirp.
How can anyone but Prophet Obama be named person of the year while he remains President? This must be some sort of blasphemy!
Malala makes Rambo look like a wuss!!
God bless you Malala!! In a world that is targeting youth (the future); you are a true warrior. Both you and congresswoman Gifford have something in common; you both survived assassination attempts; you both have shown courage that Patton and Lombardi would truly admire. What an example for women of all ages around the world!!!! I want to say that your father is a very humble and courageous man whom I admire very much.
Malala was shot for standing up for what she believed in even though it is very unpopular and dangerous in her part of the world. Giffords was shot by a random crazy guy. While the Giffords shooting was an unfortunate event, Giffords does not hold a candle to the bravery, courage and determination shown by Malala. Even comparing the two together, does a disservice to Malala’s story.
Let’s for a moment consider how each of these persons would be viewed if they had not been shot. We would still be talking about Malala and her stance against the Taliban with their death threats. While the vast majority of us would be caught asking, “Giffords? Who’s she? What has she done?”
Husky, you are correct in that Malala and congresswoman Gifford were shot and are recovering from their wounds but, that’s as far as it goes, Giffords is a socialist and Majala is a hero. So why don’t you go and troll elsewhere? And no, I don’t think Giffords should have died.
Has anyone noticed that USA based “women’s groups” are stone silent when it comes to the repression of females in Arab, Pakistani and other Muslim nations?
Just proof that “women’s groups” are not at all interested in equality but merely use the gender issue to promote a left wing (socialist, communist) ideology.
Sort of like the Nazis inventing the “jewish” enemy.
It is simply a ploy, a device to help gain power and influence.
I have now seen hundreds of pictures of her in news-media all over the world where she is always, bambi-eyed, posing for the camera. Only the color of her head-scarf changes. When I asked, in the comment-section of one of the many CNN articles about her, if she is a head-scarf model my posting disappeared almost immediately. There is something so artificial about this whole sob-story that I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that this is the news-fraud of the year.
Don’t vote. Ignore them, don’t give them the power to manipulate news. Don’t play their game and let them die the way Newsweek did.
Whether Malala makes the cover of Time, or not, will have little bearing on the critical issue. What will Pakistan’s civil establishment, and its military, do after the heroine-worship has faded?
I hold little hope for the civil government managing to find the cojones to stand up to the Saudi-funded Deobandi encroachment. They are like stereotypical wallahs from the days of the Raj, nattering about, looking officious and taking payoffs under the table.
The military is the only fully-functional institution in the country, but it’s obsessed with its own Great Satan: India. The negotiations behind the opening of the Chamalang coal mine shows what the military can do for the nation, but I don’t think they’re going to. That’s a pity, because the civilian government is an unmitigated dung-heap.
If the military doesn’t decide to actively protect her and the other girls in school, Malala is toast and so is Pakistan.
Malal Yousefzai’s BBC blog had already spurred enough public opinion to get Pakistan’s military to re-take Swat from their Taliban.
For that, she should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
And, because so few know what Swat is: Swat was a princely state that only joined Pakistan (accident of geography) in 1969. Swat is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and the people, while mostly Pashtun, are not like those who live in what is still the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan. No one has ever conquered those Pashtuns.
They have this very courageous young lady and they pick . . . Sandra Fluke. One put her life on the line (at 15), the other won’t put $10 a month on the line for her own birth control (at 30). Based on what we lionize, its apparent that we’ve become a very sad and indulgent nation.
Ah, but the real enemies are not the head-chopping, women-killing, gay-stoning Talibans, the real enemies are the Republicans who want to deprive the gays their right to marry, Sandra Fluke’s slut rights for free condoms.
How can a person who’s claim to fame is asking the USA workers to pay for her birth control even be mentioned in the same breath as Malala???