Prologue

Malala Yousafzai provides a synopsis of her personal story, including the circumstances which led to her and two friends being shot by the Taliban, and contrasts her life in Pakistan with that of Birmingham, England, where she now lives. The prologue ends with the words uttered to her by her shooter, ‘Who is Malala?’, orienting the reader to Malala’s intention of answering this question through the narrative which is to follow.

Prologue Quotes

I come from a country which was created at midnight. Prologue

To be torn from the country that you love is not something to wish on anyone. Prologue

When I stand in front of my window and look out, I see tall buildings, long roads full of vehicles moving in orderly lines, neat green hedges and lawns, and tidy pavements to walk on. I close my eyes and for a moment I am back in my valley – the high snow-topped mountains, green waving fields and fresh blue rivers – and my heart smiles when it looks at the people of Swat. Prologue

As we skipped through, we cast off our head-scarves like winds puffing away clouds to make way for the sun then ran helter-skelter up the steps. Prologue

Yet, outside the door to the school lay not only the noise and craziness of Mingora, the main city of Swat, but also those like the Taliban who think girls should not go to school. Prologue

‘… Jani mun,’ he would say. This means ‘soulmate’ in Persian, and he always called me that at the start of the day. (Malala, on her father) Prologue

Only twice had I not come top – both times when I was beaten by my class rival Malka e-Noor. I was determined it would not happen again. Prologue

‘Who is Malala?’ he demanded. No one said anything, but several of the girls looked at me. I was the only girl with my face not covered. Prologue

Chapter 1

Malala shares the story of when she was born and her father received no congratulations except from his cousin, who arrived with the family tree to which Malala’s father proudly added its first female name, Malala. Named for an Afghan folk hero, Malala was born into a Pashtun family in Swat, in the present-day Muslim nation of Pakistan. Pashtun people are a centuries old group of many tribes split between Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the beautiful Swat Valley, nicknamed the ‘Switzerland of the East’, is an autonomous region with a rich history as a Buddhist kingdom from the 2nd to 11th centuries and for having been visited by Alexander the Great in 327.

Malala introduces her family. Her father, Ziauddin, an educated man and advocate for humanity and the environment, and her mother, Tor Pekai, who cannot read or write, were married out of a love and not arrangement, which goes against the custom. Ziauddin had already co-founded a school before Malala was born, despite the family living in poverty. Malala’s mother is devoted to Islam and practises the Pashtun custom of hospitality, cooking extra food for poorer people, while feeding any leftovers to the birds to whom she talks. Malala’s paints a loving picture of her parents’ courting and the equality that exists within their relationship; her father shares his thoughts and concerns with her mother, something unheard of in Pashtun culture. Malala has two younger brothers, Khushal, with whom she mostly plays but also fights, and Atal.

Malala goes on to provide a brief history of her ancestral tribe and how they came to be in Swat. She reflects on a ‘golden period’ of prosperity between 1949 and 1969, when many schools, hospitals and roads were built and certain taxes were abolished, before power in the region was given up and Swat came under the control of Pakistan.

The chapter closes with images of Malala’s happy childhood, played out freely with friends upon the roofs of their homes, then contrasted with the inevitability that tradition expects such freedoms be restricted the more Malala matures into a woman.

Chapter 1 Quotes

For most Pashtuns it’s a gloomy day when a daughter is born. Chapter 1

He took the tree, drew a line like a lollipop from his name and at the end of it he wrote, ‘Malala’. His cousin laughed in astonishment. My father didn’t care. Chapter 1

We lived in the most beautiful place in all the world. Chapter 1

My valley, the Swat Valley, is a heavenly kingdom of mountains, gushing waterfalls and crystal-clear lakes. WELCOME TO PARADISE , it says on a sign as you enter the valley. Chapter 1

For as long as I can remember my mother has talked to birds. Chapter 1

Our home was always full of people visiting from the village. Hospitality is an important part of Pashtun culture. Chapter 1

I played mostly with Khushal because he was just two years younger than me, but we fought all the time. He would go crying to my mother and I would go to my father. Chapter 1

They glimpsed enough of each other to know they liked one another, but for us it is taboo to express such things. Instead he sent her poems she could not read. (Malala, on her parents’ courting) Chapter 1

Though she cannot read or write, my father shares everything with her, telling her about his day, the good and the bad. Chapter 1

My father came from a backward village yet through education and force of personality he made a good living for us and a name for himself. Chapter 1

So I was born a proud daughter of Pakistan, though like all Swatis I thought of myself first as Swati and then Pashtun, before Pakistani. Chapter 1

While boys and men could roam freely about town, my mother and I could not go out without a male relative to accompany us, even if it was a five-year-old boy! This was the tradition. Chapter 1

I had decided very early I would not be like that. My father always said, ‘Malala will be free as a bird.’ Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Malala tells the ironic story of how her father overcome childhood stuttering and the high expectations of a famous speaker for a father, to become an articulate man. Ziauddin was afforded many luxuries compared to his sisters, being able to attend school while they could not and given the choicest foods at home, which likely contributed to his acute sense of inequality between the genders. Ziauddin’s mother was supportive of Ziauddin and Malala believes her faith transferred into Ziauddin’s faith in Malala. Malala’s grandfather, Rohul Amin, whom she affectionately refers to as Baba, was an eloquent speaker who studied in India and who witnessed the moment Pakistan and India were freed of British colonialism in 1947. Baba often shared his disparagement of the class system and the growing gaps between the rich and the poor which occurred in Swat after it came under the power of Pakistan in 1969.

Malala elaborates on the political situation of her country at the time of her father’s youth. When Ziauddin was 8, General Zia seized power in Pakistan and had the elected prime minister executed for treason, shocking the world, before beginning a campaign to make Pakistan an Islamic nation. Under Zia’s regime, the role of women was severely restricted: woman’s evidence in court was valued at only half that of a male’s, while girls who had been raped received prison sentences unless they were able to produce four witnesses to the rape. When Ziauddin was 10, the Russians invaded Afghanistan which resulted in millions of refuges fleeing across the border into Pakistan, many of whom who were then trained as resistance fighters by Pakistan’s intelligence service. With Russian’s invasion, General Zia was transformed into a defender of freedom in the Cold War and a friend of the US, who provided billions of dollars and weapons to General Zia in a campaign to train Afghans to fight the Russians. Other Western countries and Arab countries also sent support, in particular, Saudi Arabia sent volunteer fighters, among whom was the Saudi millionaire, Osama bin Laden.

Because Pashtuns do not recognise the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, since their people are split across the two, they took the Russian invasion as ‘personal’ for religious and national reasons. A consequence of this, Malala believes, is that Pakistanis became more violent, being encouraged to obey the law of jihad—the ‘struggle’ for their religion. Malala adds that the CIA encouraged the violence by producing school textbooks in which basic arithmetic was taught using fighting metaphors. With few opportunities open to him, Ziauddin was drawn to being a jihadi, and studied with a senior talib (religious student), even praying for war between the Soviets and the Afghanis, so that he could die as a martyr. Fortunately, shortly after, Ziauddin met his future wife’s brother, whose family belonged to secular nationalist parties and were against involvement in the war, and who helped to convince Ziauddin to reconsider his desire for war and violence. Ziauddin’s political views ended up somewhere in the middle of secularism and socialism on the one hand, and militant Islam on the other.

Ziaudden eventually grew into a calm, and compared to his own father, a generous and selfless man. He studied poetry and rhetoric and turning his weakness into a strength, becoming an eloquent speaker for which he won many awards and eventually earned the respect of his father.

Chapter 2 Quotes

A stutter was a terrible thing for a man who so loved words and poetry. (Malala, on her father) Chapter 2

He was an impatient man at the best of times and would fly into a rage over the smallest thing – like a hen going astray or a cup getting broken. (Malala’s grandfather, Baba) Chapter 2

He was a mesmerising speaker. His sermons at Friday prayers were so popular that people would come down from the mountains by donkey or on foot to hear him. (Baba) Chapter 2

‘From early on I could feel I was different from my sisters,’ my father says. (Ziauddin) Chapter 2

‘No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.’ (Jinnah) Chapter 2

He described what was happening in Afghanistan as a ‘war between two elephants’ – the US and the Soviet Union – not our war, and said that we Pashtuns were ‘like the grass crushed by the hooves of two fierce beasts’. (Rahmat Shah Sayel, a Peshawar poet) Chapter 2

My father was in awe of my grandfather and told me wonderful stories about him, but he also told me that he was a man who could not meet the high standards he set for others. Chapter 2

It was my grandmother’s faith in my father that gave him the courage to find his own proud path he could travel along. This is the path that he would later show me. Chapter 2

When my father tells me stories of his childhood, he always says that though Baba was a difficult man he gave him the most important gift – the gift of education. Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Malala commences the story of her mother, Tor Pekai, and provides further details about her father’s story. Tor Pekai was encouraged to attend school by her father and brothers but stopped when she saw her cousins staying home to play and because she did not see the use in learning when tradition meant she would only end up cooking, cleaning and raising children. Her lack of education did not appear to be a regret for her until she met Malala’s father,who so greatly valued education. Ziauddin had to find ways to fund his teaching degree, demonstrating persistence and perseverance, since his father refused to help. Fortunately, Ziauddin was offered a place to stay by friends of extended family and also offered unexpected financial support from a man who would become his mentor. This period broadened Ziauddin’s worldview: he discovered women with greater freedoms than those in his village; he attended student organisations, becoming a good debater and speaker and supporter of free speech; the dictator General Zia was killed; and, Pakistan received their first female prime minister which brought a sense of optimism.

After graduation, Ziauddin worked as an English teacher, then partnered with a friend to open a school which failed due to the burden of having to accommodate relatives in their home as part of Pashtun hospitality. Ziauddin tried again with another college friend, Hidayatullah, and, after founding an organisation of school principals to help oppose the government bribes that were expected of schools, was successful. Malala’s mother moved in with her father at this time, and certain hardships followed: a stillborn child, the school losing money, a serious flood that destroyed their home and the school. However, Malala’s father remained hopeful, and on 12 July 1997, Malala was born, an event he considered would change their luck.

Malala’s father opened a second school, where Malala would spend time as she grew. When Malala was 4, Muslim terrorists flew planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, an event that would have a significant impact on life in Pakistan and bring war into the Swat Valley.

Chapter 3 Quotes

He thought there was nothing more important than knowledge. Chapter 3

He believed that lack of education was the root of all Pakistan’s problems. Chapter 3

He wanted to encourage independent thought and hated the way the school he was at rewarded obedience above openmindedness and creativity. Chapter 3

We Pashtuns cannot turn away relatives or friends, however inconvenient. We don’t respect privacy and there is no such thing as making an appointment to see someone. Visitors can turn up whenever they wish and can stay as long as they want. Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Malala shares of her paternal grandfather, Baba, and how during the holidays the family would travel by bus to see him. Malala paints a lovely picture of the natural scenery and changing landscapes along the journey, including the precarious mountain pass and the valley where Baba’s village sits between the timeless Black and White Mountains. Coming from the city, Malala is looked upon as ‘modern’ by her cousins, whose games appeared to perpetuate the traditional oppression of women in their society. When a male cousin expresses anger to Ziauddin for Malala’s failure to wear a face covering, as is done by all the women in the valley, the cousin is rebuked by Ziauddin. Malala learns from her father about the oppression of women in Afghanistan, where girls’ schools are being burned down by Pashtuns known as the Taliban, and holds onto her father’s words: ‘Malala is free as a bird.’

Chapter 4 Quotes

You could see the White Mountain from everywhere, and my father told me he used to think of it as a symbol of peace for our land, a white flag at the end of our valley. Chapter 4

Wearing a burqa is like walking inside big fabric shuttlecock with only a grille to see through and on hot days it’s like an oven. At least I didn’t have to wear one. Chapter 4

‘I will protect your freedom, Malala. Carry on with your dreams.’ (Ziauddin) Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Malala revels in the knowledge that, by age 7, she had been consistently at the top of her class. Normally beating out her only competition, her friend Moniba, Malala receives a rude awakening when she loses to new girl, Malka-e-Noor.

Malala’s moral development is further progressed through lessons she learns that will culminate in her commitment to never steal, and through her father’s mentoring that the Pashtun code of revenge should be replaced with non-violence and teaching.

Malala describes the ‘sort of democracy’ into which she was born, having a female prime minister, but how, two years later, this will be replaced with a dictatorship under General Musharraf, whose promises of reform would instead perpetuate corruption so that the same rich families would rule the country and become wealthier while the poor people would become poorer.

Malala accepts coming in second to Moniba in a public speaking contest, showing her growing maturity.

Chapter 5 Quotes

At first stealing gave me a thrill, but that did not last long. Soon it became a compulsion. I did not know how to stop. Chapter 5

Since that day I have never lied or stolen …I also stopped wearing jewellery because I asked myself, What are these baubles which tempt me? Why should I lose my character for a few metal trinkets? Chapter 5

I came second.
It didn’t matter. Lincoln also wrote in the letter to his son’s teacher, ‘Teach him how to gracefully lose.’ Chapter 5