Marie Bouhon - I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani teenager who, following an attempt on her life, currently lives in Birmingham, England. When she was younger she lived in Swat, a remote district in a province of northern Pakistan, where there had been clashes between the national army and the Taliban for several years.

Although she is from a poor family her father went into debt to found a school and her mother is a housewife the young girl was lucky enough to go to school, despite everything, which is not the case for all children in Pakistan. In fact, many children have to work to help their parents to cover the familys basic needs. Furthermore, since the majority of women are housewives, most girls learn to cook rather than to read, because their parents think that this skill will be more useful for them in future.

Malala, who wanted more than anything to make her father proud, tried to always be top of the class. However, as the years passed the Taliban became more influential and limited girls access to education. They started by criticising mixed classes, then mixed schools. When they officially seized power in 2009, they allowed girls to go to school until the age of 11, but shortly afterwards forbade it altogether and strongly enforced this new rule. In total, around 150 schools were destroyed. In defiance of the ban, Malala and some of her classmates continued their classes in secret.

A few months later, when the conflict between the Taliban and the Pakistani army worsened, the population of Swat was forced into exile. For three months, Malala could no longer go to school and, as she was unable to take her books with her, she could not work and study by herself. When they returned, life went back to normal, as businesses and schools reopened.

Unfortunately, in July 2010 the region was hit by torrential rain, causing devastating floods. Many people died, roads and buildings collapsed, and some of the schools that had been spared by the Taliban were badly damaged.

In spite of the damage and the threat from the extremists, classes gradually began again. However, for Malala everything stopped in October 2012 when two members of the Taliban attacked her on the bus home from school. She miraculously survived and was transferred to one of the best hospitals in the UK for treatment. After many operations and a long period of rehabilitation, she was finally able to start classes again, this time in Birmingham, where she now lives with her family.

Initially, the term Taliban referred to people who studied Islam. Gradually, this group a significant proportion of whom had not finished their studies started to spread their own interpretation of the Quran, which takes many liberties with the original text, in particular with regard to the place of women in society.

In remote regions of Pakistan, their propaganda was initially very subtle: Maulana Fazlullah (leader of the Taliban, born in 1974) used a radio antenna to transmit daily advice on how to live in accordance with Islam. This advice covered matters of hygiene and cooking, as well as agriculture, education and appropriate behaviour. Local populations responded favourably to these remarks and offered both moral and financial support to the leader.

The recommendations grew progressively more radical, condemning, for example, music. Militias also appeared and employed particularly violent methods, such as public floggings, to maintain the established order. Those who disagreed with this doctrine were also eliminated. Schools which were judged immoral were simply destroyed.

Following these violent actions, open war broke out between the Taliban and the Pakistani army, and local populations left to take refuge in other parts of the country. Later, when the army had regained control of the situation and life for Pakistanis was getting back to normal, there were major floods in the Swat valley. The Taliban took advantage of the prevailing chaos and distress to come to the aid of remote villages and take in orphans. They educated, or rather indoctrinated, these children to turn them into extremists.

From then on, there were fewer Taliban attacks, but they were targeted (a politician, an activist, a dancer, a school). The Pakistani government then considered that peace had returned. Only some one-off arrests following the attack on Malala, for example were made.

When he was younger, Malalas father successfully took part in public speaking contests. To follow in his footsteps and make him proud, the young girl also decided to sign up for one of these competitions. Her first participation marked the start of a number of speeches which aimed not just at elocution, but at the defence of the right to education for all. Malala was soon invited to speak at some schools and other public places in her town, then in several regions of Pakistan, where she met a number of politicians.

After she became the victim of an assassination attempt, her voice and her demands took on an international dimension. Now famous all over the world, Malala established a foundation and wrote a book to further increase the impact of her plea and bring about change with regard to education in Swat.