The story of Malala, a young girl

with big dreams.

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How it all began

Malala Yousafzai, or as the world knows her Malala, was just a regular girl who loved school and lived in Mingora,Swat Valley, Pakistan. She was the only daughter between two brothers,Atal and Khushal so things sometimes would get messy. Her father was the principal of a school that would allow girls to get educated named “Khushal Public School”. Malala loved going to school no matter what people said and had big dreams about her future. She had the good luck of having a father that valued education and allowed his daughter to get educated, because as it is shown in the book a lot of male relatives do not allow their female relatives to get educated, as if they are scared that women will overrule them. At a very young age Malala saw the way that young girls were treated in comparison to the boys, and things would get much more severe in rural places. She always hoped that she could do something to change it and these days she finally is. Even as a young girl, a child actually, she understood what it meant to be educated, to know how to read, to understand why things happen a certain way. “One teacher,one child,one pen,one book can change the world.” Malala has said and she is absolutely right. Malala has always been competitive when it came to school and she would usually compete with Malka-e-Noor because they were both very smart girls. She had her friends there, most importantly her best friend Moniba, and her life. Even though there were unpleasant things about The Swat Valley, Malala didn’t mind living there because she hoped that she could change it someday. Malala was also greatly influenced by her father who was a huge supporter of every child getting an education. In her book Malala often expresses that the family barely made ends meet, but her father always managed to keep the school open so every child could get the appropriate education they needed and deserved, no matter what people had to say about him. But everything would change quickly after an enormous earthquake hit Pakistan.

A fight for education

An enormous earthquake hit Pakistan around 2005, nothing was the same again. “Radio Mullah”, a fundamentalist radio, made people believe that the earthquake happened because people weren’t being good muslims, and a huge amount of the population believed it. They even supported “Radio Mullah” and often followed his teachings and went to his long hateful speeches in the center of the city. As most fundamentalist groups, he had a lot to say about women and how they don’t deserve education if they are above the age of 10, how they shouldn’t laugh or even wear white shoes in public, the type of burakas they should wear and how they couldn’t be seen outside their houses without a male relative. Basically women started being treated like properties. Things changed for men too, but women were the ones that were the most affected. In the beginning of all of it people liked Mullah and his saying, but soon the Taliban took over and things went from bad to worse. When “Radio Mullah” was broadcasting things changed but there were still people that didn’t follow the rules and they could get away with a dirty look from their neighbours, but when the Taliban took power it was obey or suffer the consequences. Schools were being bombed, girls over the age of 10 would get attacked if they went to school, so most of them stopped going. That was very hurtful to Malala, but she didn’t stop. She would try to hide her school utensils under her clothes and she went to school no matter what. But things weren’t easy. Malala’s father was a public enemy to the Taliban because he refused to close his school and he would go against them in speeches. Even though he fought against Taliban he was fearful of them, not because they would hurt him, but because they would hurt his school and his family. Their life became hard. Malala’s father started taking different routes home in case he was being followed. A terrible life where your legs are free but your mind is not. Even Malala started talking about girls’ rights to an education. She first started with a couple small speeches and later started broadcasting her daily life to big television networks in bigger places. Her words were being heard. Her work started to grow feet and walk up the hill of difficulties that girls’ education faced. People started noticing her around the world and praised her, but people around her city weren’t doing the same. They were calling her a traitor, abad muslim, a girl that would go to hell, a snitch and sometimes those words would get to her. But luckily, she had her parents who motivated her and told her she was doing the right thing. Soon Malala started to go on big important meeting and expressing her voice even more, she knew that someday,somehow she will accomplish her mission. It wasn’t easy. Because even though Malala was fighting for education, she was still a young teenage girl. She was still focused on school and was afraid that she wouldn’t be top of her class that year, and she also struggled with body-image issues. She felt she wasn’t tall enough, feminine enough. Even though her work was spreading wings and flying across the world she was still old same Malala, to herself, to her brothers, to her family and friends. The amazing feelings she had about helping all girls all over the world, quickly got replaced with a feeling of fear, a fear of attack because she was talking out loud about education and also oppression she and her people were experiencing from the Taliban and the unjust government system who would do nothing about it. She started feeling like she was being followed, threat letters were being sent to her and her father, she started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. They even left their home, but then returned back because Malala wasn’t going to let the Taliban win. But eventually, a threat letter was sent to her telling her that she would soon die. But Malala didn’t fear that. She even imagined what she would say to her attacker when he would attack her. But unfortunately she didn’t have the chance.

The bullet that changed the world

One day as Malala was on her bus to go home from school, the Taliban stopped the bus, asked who Malala was and shot 4 shots at her. Only one bullet hit Malala and the other three hit the girls sitting next to her. Malala was hit it her eye socket an the bullet had made its way into her shoulder too. Malala got hit by the bullet and then woke up in England in a hospital full of strangers who spoke a language,that in that time, her brain couldn’t process. Soon Malala found out what happened to her. In Pakistan the doctors have saved her life, but her situation was getting worse day by day. After the world found out everyone wanted to help Malala. The UAE airlines helped transport her to Birmingham where she got a better care. Even when she could barely talk, or even move,Malala asked for her family,for her friends, she wanted to know if they were fine. Soon she found out what happened to her and when she saw herself in the mirror, she wasn’t scared or terrified, she was glad to see the girl in the mirror, the girl that survived it all. Malala soon understood that she had become famous, even celebrities were texting her. Soon she found out she also had a lot of fans and that everyone knew who she was, but more importantly, they knew her cause, they knew the challenges that girls and girls’ education faced. By trying to silence her with a bullet, the Taliban only made her cause bigger and more powerful. They hit her to stop her voice, but her voice became a roar. Many would think that Malala would get scared and she would stop standing up for girls’ education and for children’s education all over the world, but she actually became braver and started speaking out more. After her recovery Malala had a completely different view for the world, she was moved spiritually, I guess death has those consequences. Unfortunately, it wasn’t safe for Malala and her family to go back to Pakistan, out of fear for another attack. That is the part that hurt Malala the most, not being able to see her friends, family, the streets of her city or to even be able to listen her native language being spoken among the streets. But Malala wasn’t going to get depressed. She decided to take advantage to her new opportunities. In her new school in Birmingham she saw struggles to fit in, especially with the new culture around her, but she soon saw that the teenagers at her new school and her had a lot things in common and also a lot of different things, but Malala saw that as an opportunity to learn from one another. She would often think how lucky she was to study in an environment like that when her friends in Pakistan would barely have enough space or supplies, but she still missed them. Malala also felt bad for her father and mother, because they left their whole lives behind. Her father was somebody, he had his school that he had worked so hard for in Pakistan, but in the UK he was just a simple man, a foreigner. Malala’s mother had difficulties reading since in Pakistan and in the UK the difficulties got even bigger, but her daughter inspired her to work hard and do something for her daughter’s cause by teaching herself how to read. As the whole book shows, Malala had a lot of difficulties. She had difficulties growing up in a patriarchal society where she wanted to study and become someone in life, she had to experience trauma just to go to school, at a young age she decided to stand up and be an advocate for girls’ education around the world and she challenged a fundamentalist system, she got shot, they took her country away, they took her old life away, but they were never able to take her voice, her spirit, her ambition,her dedication, HER away. Malala Yousafzai is still an advocate for girls’ education around the world. She has won a Nobel Peace Prize among many other and is part of many organisations that stand for peace,education,justice,freedom and hope. She is Malala and this was her story.