'I am Malala' by Malala Yousafzai
I am Malala: The girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban, by Malala Yousafzai.
Don’t let the beauty and innocence of Malala Yousafzai’s voice in this book fool you: her young mind had seen and experienced more before her 15th birthday that most of us will on our life time, and every word is full of consideration and wisdom.
You might be familiar with Malala’s story. As the book’s title paraphrases, she was an education and girls’ rights activist in Pakistan, and for this, she was sought out and shot by the Taliban in 2012 on her school bus. This happened after years of activism and a documentary being made about her life for BBC Urdu. In the years following the attack, she has been awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize and addressed the United Nations about equal access to education. She’s had an enormous impact on regulation surrounding education, touching thousands of people’s lives, and she’s only 19.
Malala’s autobiography – which is in constant evolution – gives the human insight into what is often a complex political situation, from fresh and passionate perspective. What Malala has experienced is certainly one reason to go and read her autobiography – you’ll learn about Pakistan’s politics and people, but Malala also never stops reminding us of its physical beauty. Equally compelling, however, is her character. She’s funny, brave, daring, and wise beyond her years.
The relationships in Malala’s story is what have really stayed with me: her relationship with her father, her friends, her country, her religion and the rest of the world. Even if we can’t relate to her experience of persecution, we can all relate to her admiration of those around her and her childhood stories, and we realise that despite everything that has happened to Malala and all that she has achieved, she is just a normal teenage girl, fighting for what she believes in.
If Malala and people like her are the people leading the way in education and gender rights, then I think we’re going in the right direction. Her autobiography will leave you in awe, and I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last we hear from her.