The girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban.
Malala co-wrote this book with Christina Lamb in 2013 as a testimony of the tragedy that the Taliban brought to Pakistan with their arrival. She narrates how the Taliban overturned her life and why she started so passionately to support education for all children, particularly girls. The 9th of October 2012 is the most dramatic day of Malala’s life. It symbolizes the turning point of her life from which she becomes a human rights activist for female education and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The book revolves around such an important day and is divided into two main parts. In the first part, Malala describes her childhood in the beautiful Swat Valley in Pakistan. Her family, although poor, provides her and her two brothers with a solid education in the school founded by their father. The father represents a crucial figure for Malala in her upbringing and appreciation for children’s fundamental right to education. She is fascinated by his job in the school and his appreciated political presence in the local community. She listens to his speeches and debates and dreams of following his footsteps one day. As a young determined girl, she studies hard at school and participates in school debates and public orations organized by the school, challenging her schoolmates in all subjects to see who is the best performing student. In the second part of the book, Malala describes how Pakistan changes after the arrival of the Taliban in 2006. They slowly impose their values, spread terror among the inhabitants for freely expressing their opinions, and limit people’s freedom. Among other restrictions, they mandate the closure of schools for little girls and forbid education for women, whose only duty is to stay at home and be responsible for the house chores. The Swat Valley is no exception, and soon all the girl schools are closed down, except the one belonging to Malala’s father. Malala and her father increase the frequency of their public speeches and the strength of their activism to protect their values. Malala begins to write a BBC Urdu blog under the pseudonym “Gul Mukai” to let the international community know how bad the situation in Pakistan is becoming. Her voice becomes famous all over the world. Her mother worries for her family’s safety, but Malala keeps going to her father’s school to complete her education. On the 9th of October 2012, Malala takes the school bus to go home after her last exam in Pakistan history. She passionately discusses the exam answers with her school friends when the vehicle is abruptly stopped. Two Taleban enter the bus and ask, “who is Malala?”, before the catastrophe happens, and they start shooting at the school girls. Malala’s life is hanging in the balance: a bullet perforates her face from the left eye, ending up in her shoulders. Pakistan’s hospital facilities and doctors cannot provide the right medical treatments to save her life, and all her supporters and father’s political friends try everything to move her somewhere else where she can be saved. Thanks to the financial help of the United Arab Emirates and the hospitality and support of the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, she manages to survive. She and her family are currently living in Birmingham. Her fight for women’s education is far from over, and she keeps promoting girls’ fundamental right to education. The last memory she has before the atrocious shooting is the question, “who is Malala?”. She could not answer it back then on the 9th of October 2012. She responds to it today by bravely telling her story and raising support for women deprived of education.