I Am Malala Summary

Summary

It is well known to most people that many children and even adults around the world do not have access to any form of education, leaving many illiterate and uneducated. However, many like Malala Yousafzai want to put an end to this and give everyone, especially girls, the opportunity to get an education. I chose to read this book because education is something many of us may take for granted and I wanted a better understanding of how girls from around the world learn in different ways. In her memoir I Am Malala, Yousafzai mentions repeatedly her love for learning and going to school even if she has to do it in secret because where she is from, this being Swat, Pakistan, many do not think women should be allowed to learn. Her father

and her are well known speakers who are trying to fight against this discrimination and get girls in Pakistan especially the chance to learn. Her and many other girls attend school in secret, and at first are not in much trouble, but soon the Taliban come to Swat and that makes going to school all the more risky for the girls. Soon, many are executed publicly and schools bombed under the Taliban. Not to mention, her father and her are in danger for being so well known for speaking out against what the Taliban teaches. However, Yousafzai does not let her fear stop her from getting her education and on one fateful day, she got on the bus and ended up getting attacked by a Talib, a member of the Taliban militant group. Being in critical condition, Yousafzai survives and is sent to numerous hospitals before ending up in Birmingham, England. Around the world, news stations were all trying to cover this case, making Yousafzai’s voice and fight for education louder than ever before. Many help her and her family, and they even receive a place to live in England as it is clear it is far too dangerous for them to head back to Swat with the Taliban still out there. However, Yousafzai still wishes to return to her homeland, plans on it, even. The Taliban may have tried to silence her, but ultimately only helped her by getting her one step closer in her fight for education.
Central Message
The central idea or message of Yousafzai’s memoir is to speak up for what you believe in and do not let anything, like fear for example, stand in your way. In other words, turn your fear into the thing that pushes you to move forward; let it be the thing that drives you, “Don’t be afraid - if you are afraid, you can’t move forward” (Yousafzai 308). Not only should you use your fear to continue to push yourself, you should avoid letting it control you. Along with that message, another important one is that everyone should have an education as education is: “... neither Eastern nor Western, it is human” (162).
To help develop these messages, Yousafzai does use her own anecdotes of being afraid to go to school once the Taliban took over, but then once her story got out to the world, she would explain that she was no longer afraid of them, as she knew in her heart she had a right to speak out on the subject of education. She also talks about women’s struggles in Pakistan, and how many are not allowed an education which is the fight she is in: getting everyone the right to an education.
Structure
To start, the book opens with praise for the memoir from many different sources which winds up taking three pages.

Then it shows two pictures: one of Henna decorations of chemical formulas and calculus, which goes against the tradition of the usual flowers or butterflies, and on the back of the dedication page there is a map of Pakistan, Swat, and areas that surround the two. There is then the table of contents which shows how the book is broken down. First off, there is the prologue, then the story begins in chronological order as Yousafzai starts off Part One with a chapter titled “A Daughter Is Born”. The first eight chapters are a part of Part One, the next seven are of Part Two, the next five of Part Three, two chapters in Part Four, and two more plus the epilogue in Part Five. In two parts of the book are a handful of pages of pictures from either Yousafzai’s life growing up or from the country where she grew up. In the back it gives a glossary of all the terms used, and it is followed up by a timeline of important events that had occurred in Pakistan and Swat, the valley she grew up in. After those follows the acknowledgements, a note on the Malala Fund which aims to help millions of girls around the world receive an education, and finally a reading guide which includes discussion

questions.
Author and Author’s Purpose
Yousafzai is now eighteen years old and currently is still living in Birmingham, England. Mainly, this book is a memoir of Yousafzai’s personal story about her fight for education and the incident that nearly ended her life. In the understanding of how important an education is, Yousafzai should be considered an expert as she lived in a country where a woman getting an education is seen as such a terrible thing. Not to mention, she experienced getting her education taken away and states she: “... know[s] the importance of education because my pens and books were taken from me by force” (214). Her whole campaign is about education for girls around the globe and in that field, she might as well be an expert for being a girl who had lived in a place where her right to an education was taken from her. Yousafzai feels strongly about getting girls their educations, even starting an education fund and she vowed she would “... do everything in my power to help educate girls…” (217). Throughout her memoir, the main point she tries to drive across repeatedly is how strongly she believes that each and every girl has a right to an education and how she is willing to fight for it.

Language
Throughout the book there are many times where the author uses things such as figurative language in the form of similes. For example, when she talks about her father’s speech to encourage the girls to continue to keep coming to school she says that he “spoke like a lion” (230). From the figurative language used, it helps the reader really imagine how good of a speaker her father is and how strong a voice her has. Even when she talks about how the snows in Swat are with “long icicles hanging from the roof like daggers” (19) it really helps the reader imagine just what a Swat winter would be like. Overall there were not many technical terms used, the trickiest being a CT scan for those who do not know medical practices well. However, Yousafzai does use some language from her country and explain the meanings or leaves them in the glossary.