Education is a gift – a privilege – that 72 million children around the globe do not receive. Reasons vary – economics, poverty, or religion, to name a few. In the case of Malala Yousafzai, it was all of the above.
In her book, I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai walks us through her story as she stood up for women’s education and was shot by the Taliban because of it.
Malala was born in 1997 and raised in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. Her father, a man committed to education for all, ran several schools and was a prominent figure in the community. He was determined to give his daughter the same opportunities as everyone else, despite the cultural attitude that women had no use for education.
In her father’s schools and under his guidance, Malala thrived. She excelled in her studies and was consistently at the top of her class. She began publicly speaking out about the importance of education in 2008 at only 11 years old. By 2009, she was writing a blog for BBC under a pseudonym about life under the Taliban. She gave numerous interviews and was even featured in a New York Times’ documentary. In 2012, she was shot in the head by the Taliban on the bus taking her home from school. No one expected her to live.
Today, Malala continues to fight for women and children’s rights. She has met with numerous politicians and dignitaries (including Queen Elizabeth and President Barack Obama), opened schools, raised money and awareness for educational rights, and is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She graduated from Oxford in 2020.
In her book, Malala details life in Swat (as well as its history), her family and upbringing, the early and growing influence of the Taliban, and the Pakistani military occupation. She explains how she began blogging and giving interviews about Taliban rule/restrictions/brutality. The contrast between life pre- and post-Taliban takeover is shocking and sickening. She says, “The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.” And then, of course, Malala walks us through the moment in which she was shot in the head, point-blank, on her way home from school and the aftermath. Her recovery is a miracle.
One of the particularly touching parts of the book is the devotion Malala’s parents show her. Her family supports each other, helps each other, sacrifices for each other, and loves each other. With their country and society championing sons, the family’s unwavering dedication to their daughter is powerful.
I Am Malala is enlightening, well-written, evenly paced, and highly moving. There is a lot of historical, political, and religious discussion that feels a little awkward alongside intimate details of Malala’s life. Even so, the biography is excellent.
It certainly accomplishes its goal: bringing light to the ongoing issue of basic rights of education and rights for women. Humanium – a children’s rights organization – writes, “Today, it is girls who have the least access to education. They make up more than 54% of the non-schooled population in the world. This problem occurs most frequently in the Arab States, in central Asia and in Southern and Western Asia and is principally explained by the cultural and traditional privileged treatment given to males… In sub-Saharan Africa, over 12 million girls are at risk of never receiving an education. In Yemen, it is more than 80% of girls who will never have the opportunity to go to school. Even more alarming, certain countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia make no effort to reduce the gap between girls and boys with regard to education” (para. 15-17). What a sad truth.
If you get anything out of Malala’s biography, it’s that we should never take our education for granted.
“‘Let us pick up our books and our pens… They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.’” – Malala Yousafzai
Jessica
Copyright Malala Yousafzai and Little, Brown, and Company. Image from Amazon.com.
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