Pakistani schools hold anti-Malala day

A network of Pakistani private schools held an "I am not Malala" day on Monday to protest the Nobel Peace Prize winner's support of novelist Salman Rushdie.

The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation banned its members from purchasing the 17-year-old's memoir, I am Malala, last year, because it allegedly contained "anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam content." The federation alleged that the book was "too sympathetic" toward Rushdie, AFP reports. An Iranian edict called for Rushdie's murder in 1989 for blasphemy against Islam in his book The Satanic Verses.

Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban in 2012 after campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan. The Pakistani schools' federation, however, has called her a "Western agent" who has shamed Pakistan.

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Pakistani schools held walks, seminars, and press conferences on Monday condemning Yousafzai, who now lives in the U.K. --Meghan DeMaria