Despite believing in the Islamic faith, Malala noticed from an early age that Pakistanis would cite Islam when they belittled women and forbade them from learning. Ziauddin and Tor Pekai raised Malala to be a pious Muslim. She pestered her father to allow more children to enter his school on scholarship, and Ziauddin agreed. Growing up, Malala noticed the rampant poverty in her community. When they found out about this, Malala’s parents were so ashamed of her that Malala resolved to never steal anything or do anything sinful ever again. Once, when Malala was about six years old, she stole a toy from her friend, and afterwards developed a habit of stealing other things. She excelled in the classroom, usually ranking first in her classes. Ziauddin encouraged her to participate in speaking and debating competitions, and she did so, gradually working her way up to become one of the most talented public speakers of her age. Ziauddin became a passionate advocate for free speech, education, and women’s rights: three causes that he raised Malala to respect deeply.Īs a child, Malala was clever but shy. As an adult, he married Tor Pekai for love, rather than because of a family arrangement-this, Malala notes, is highly irregular in Pashtun culture. While many of these ventures failed-since many Muslims in Pakistan refused to believe in a woman’s right to an education-Ziauddin eventually found success. In the 1980s, when Pakistan fell under the control of the brutal dictator General Zia, Ziauddin founded a series of schools that offered educations to girls as well as boys. He grew up studying poetry and literature, and earned his family’s respect by winning several prestigious debating competitions. Malala’s father, Ziauddin, is a charismatic, educated man. From a very early age, she was conscious of the restrictions being placed on her because of her sex. She is also a devout Muslim, and has been all her life. She lives in the Swat Valley, a beautiful part of Northwestern Pakistan. She is a Pashtun, an ethnic group situated mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When she was born, few people in her community bothered to congratulate her parents, Ziauddin and Tor Pekai, because the birth of a girl is seen as a failure on the part of the parents. The book then “flashes back” to Malala’s birth. The man raises a gun and shoots Malala in the head. Malala says nothing, but her identity is obvious: she’s not wearing her burqa (female veil). Suddenly, the bus stops, and a man climbs onboard. On her ride to school, Malala thinks about how her hometown of Mingora, Pakistan has changed in the last decade, and how the Taliban (a radical Islamist group) continue to pose a threat to advocates of education and women’s rights. The book begins on October 9, 2012, as Malala Yousafzai, a teenaged girl, makes her way to school by bus.

I am malala by malala