I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Malala and her family head back home a week after the prime minister announces it is safe. However, many families “weren’t convinced it was safe to return” so the valley is empty (190). Malala and her father return to the school to survey the damage. Debris, anti-Taliban slogans, and bullet casings are scattered about. “I felt sorry that our precious school had become a battleground” (191).

The Taliban, it seems, is truly gone. “My father’s friend Ahmad Shah called it a ‘controlled peace, not a durable peace.’ But gradually people returned to the valley because Swat is beautiful and we cannot bear to be away from it for long” (193). Once their school is up and running, Malala’s class takes a trip. They participate in workshops and learn how to tell their stories.

Despite the time away from the valley, the teachers expect to be paid. Malala and her teacher Madam Maryam write to General Abbas, explaining the situation. “He was very kind and sent us 1,100,000 rupees so my father could pay everyone three months’ back pay” (197).

A monsoon descends upon the valley and the school is flooded. Malala recalls it taking several days before the water receded enough to go back. The valley is devastated—bridges were washed away and houses destroyed. The valley receives little help. “Foreign governments pointed out most of our politicians weren’t paying any income tax, so it was a bit much to ask hard-pressed taxpayers in their own countries to contribute” (203).

The horror continued when Malala’s father’s friend Dr. Mohammed Farooq is shot and killed. “Our country had so many crises and no real leaders to tackle them” (204).

Malala talks about being thirteen and no longer growing. She fears not getting taller because if she was short “it wasn’t easy to be authoritative” (205). Although she dislikes high heels, she wears them.

Malala parallels this with a story about a Christian woman being sentenced to death. One person who spoke out for the Christian woman was a governor and close ally of the late Benazir Bhutto. Unfortunately, he was killed by his own bodyguards a couple days later. “Our country was going crazy. How was it possible that we were not garlanding murderers?” (209). Soon after the shooting, Malala’s father is threatened. However, he does not stop speaking out.

A CIA operative from America is captured. His safety is paid for and he is rushed back to the United States. The news causes uneasiness among the Pakistanis. Not long after, the Americans announce they have found and killed Osama bin Laden. What shocked many was how close to a military academy bin Laden’s compound was. “We couldn’t believe the army had been oblivious to bin Laden’s whereabouts” (211). When they found out their own government was not part of the plan to take bin Laden out, it put a bitter taste in many mouths.“People were intrigued by the news details that came every day, but they seemed angrier at the American incursion than at the fact that the world’s biggest terrorist had been living on our soil” (213).

Despite the sad things happening around Malala, there are spots of brightness. She finds out she has been nominated for an international peace prize sponsored by Kids Rights. Although she didn’t win, she was alter presented a check for $4,500 to campaign for girls’ rights. She said, “I know the importance of education because my pens and books were taken from me by force. But the girls of Swat are not afraid of anyone. We have continued with our education” (214). Shortly after the award, she receives Pakistan’s first-ever National Peace Prize. Malala’s mother fears the new awards added fuel to the fire and that Malala was becoming a bigger target.

Her friends support her throughout the awards and fame. “I knew that any of the girls in my class could have achieved what I had achieved if they had had their parents’ support” (216). Malala and her family use some of her award money to help people in need. Malala saw girls during her travels who could not read. These girls motivate her to continue campaigning.

Malala begins the chapter with a passage about her aunt. Her aunt lived near the sea, but had never seen it. Because she needed to be accompanied by a male, or, if she was daring, be able to read the signs to the sea, her aunt was wholly unable to go. Even educated women faced challenges. “My headmistress Maryam was a strong educated woman, but in our society she could not live on her own and come to work. She had to be living with a husband, brother or parents” (219).

On a trip with her father, they are shocked to see a murderer’s picture decorated with garlands. On that same trip, they visit the tomb of Jinnah. Some of his speeches were displayed, including one about the importance of women. “It was hard to visit that place and read those speeches without thinking that Jinnah would be very disappointed in Pakistan” (222). She wonders why Muslims fight each other if everyone else is supposedly the enemy.

Soon, Malala finds out she is being targeted. She and her family are offered guards, but her father refuses them. “When there was Talibanization we were safe; now there are no Taliban we are unsafe” (225).

One day, a letter is delivered to Malala’s family. The letter consists of propaganda against her father’s school and female education. Although the letter was handed out all over the market, many shopkeepers ignored it and threw it away. Her father adamantly speaks out against the propaganda. “My father spoke like a lion, but I could see in his heard he was worried and scared” (230).

Her father’s friend warns that the Taliban is a mentality and they could be all over Swat. Other friends asked her father to stay hidden, but he refuses to be a coward. “His only precaution was to change his routine” to make it harder for radicals to track him (234).

Malala begins to become paranoid, seeing the Taliban everywhere. Despite her father’s relative indifference, Malala takes more precautions. She checks the windows and doors multiple times every night. She also prays much more than normal, asking for protection from the Taliban.

Tests begin at school. She obsesses over her grades and studies all through the night. One day, after one of her tests, she exits the school with her friends. Each of her friends cover their face, but Malala only covers her head. A man stops their bus, and while he argued with the driver, another man comes around the back and asks which girl was Malala. He shoots her and two of her friends. “The last thing I remember is that I was thinking about the revision I needed to do for the next day” (242).