By Ajuni Kaur
Courier Staff Reporter
Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Girls Education and Was Shot By The Taliban is an inspirational story about courage and hope.
Malala Yousafzai was born and raised in Swat Valley of Pakistan, and is named after the great warrior of Pustans. Her home, Swat, was known for its beauty and attracted thousands of tourists up until the Taliban took over.
This autobiography is divided into five parts and revolves around Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala’s father, countless efforts to educate children.
The book gives detailed information about how Kaushal School, her father’s school, came to being, the take over by the Taliban, and the numerous but mostly unsuccessful attempts of the military to remove Taliban from the Swat Valley.
The climax of her story starts when the Taliban takes over the Swat Valley and prohibits exercises that were regular to the valley. Some of the Taliban orders were things like a women has to be guarded by one of her male family members to go to the market.
Under their rule many men were killed and numerous schools were bombed, especially the ones that educated girls. Despite of receiving threats from Taliban, Ziauddin never gave up on his dream of liberating children.
Malala also writes about being shot on the day of her examination, her critical condition after being injured, and the controversy behind the decision of taking her to Birmingham without her parents. Her being alive is no less than a miracle. It is important to remember that she suffered to all of this at the age of sixteen.
I would definitely recommend reading this book because most of us in the developed nations take education for granted, and don’t think about the people that don’t have pubic education or their right to learning is taken away from them. Additionally, the book is pretty engaging and is really hard to put down.
