Taliban - Who is Malala Yousafzai?

On July 12, 1997, Malala Yousafzai was born in the city of Mingora, Pakistan. Outside her parents bedroom, a new day was about to begin. Soon the city would come alive with horns honking and people calling and music playing. But now it was early. The morning sun was rising behind the mountains outside the city. A rooster crowed. A scooters engine revved.

Like many families in their poor neighborhood, the Yousafzais couldnt afford a doctor or midwife. Instead, a neighbor woman arrived to deliver the baby. When Tor Pekai Yousafzai was handed her first child, she felt instant love. But there was also sadness in her heart. Tor Pekai knew what was in store for this little girl. Her friends and neighbors in Mingora would not celebrate her birth. If she had been a boy, they would have brought gifts and food and poems.

Tor Pekai had grown up in a remote mountain village. Most girls did not go to school. However, Tor Pekai wanted to learn. When she was six, she went to the village school, but being a girl in school was so unusual that she soon left.

In Mingora and many other areas of the Swat Valley, it was common for all children to attend school. The first girls school was built in the 1920s. High schools and colleges followed. The rulers believed that all children, girls as well as boys, should be educated. Pakistan was proud of the graduates in the Swat area who went on to become teachers, doctors, and other professionals.

Malalas father had also grown up in a mountain village. He also believed in schooling for girls. When Ziauddin (zee-OW-dun) saw his new baby daughter, he did not feel disappointed. He felt proud. He would make sure that she would have the same chances in life as any boy.

Three years earlier, he had built a private elementary school for boys and girls. He called it the Khushal School. He was the teacher. Ziauddin planned to build more schools, then more and more. A high school for girls, another for boys, until every child in Mingora had a place to learn.

Ziauddin had grown up in a religious Muslim family. His father was a teacher. He taught Ziauddin that children were sacred, and all children needed to learn. He explained that it was important to help others. Ziauddin listened.

ISLAM

ISLAM IS A PEACEFUL RELIGION PRACTICED BY MORE THAN A BILLION PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD. MUSLIMS ARE FOLLOWERS OF THE ISLAMIC FAITH. ISLAM TEACHES THERE IS ONE GOD, KNOWN AS ALLAH IN THE ARABIC LANGUAGE. THE WORDS OF ALLAH ARE REVEALED IN THE SACRED BOOK OF ISLAM, CALLED THE QURAN. MUSLIM HOUSES OF WORSHIP ARE CALLED MOSQUES.