I Am Malala The Girl Who Stood Up For Education

The book, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, is written by Malala Yousafzai and co-written by Christina Lamb. This moving memoir was originally published by Little, Brown and Company in New York on October 8th, 2013. This memoir showcases different parts of the world that refuse for females to gain an education. Malala mainly draws attention towards the educational issue in her own country of Pakistan and the valley of Swat during modern day, but occasionally refers to its history. The geographical issue of countries denying girls of an education is derived from the country’s cultural, social, and religious beliefs; these beliefs will dictate if they allow girls to go to school. This memoir argues

that every male and female should have the right of obtaining an education, regardless of the culture or belief their country possesses. This riveting memoir is an enjoyable book overall and shows strength in giving the reader the opportunity to see in the point of view of an oppressed female who has to fight to earn her right for an education for herself and for millions of others around the world.
Malala Yousafzai’s main point in her memoir is to bring awareness towards the fact that there are millions of girls worldwide who are still currently denied an education.

The memoir itself consists of multiple compelling moments; to begin with one highlight, Malala discusses her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, having to seek others’ help in order to go to college to have the education to start a school for girls. After attending college, Ziauddin eventually is able to begin a school, called, “Kushal School”, but it isn’t until Malala’s birth that the school starts to grow (Yousafzai and Lamb 41-55). This passage shows importance towards this memoir because Ziauddin shares the same qualities as Malala in that they both are persistent when their dreams of receiving an education are met with difficulties. Also, with Ziauddin starting up his own female school, he gives Malala the mindset of wanting to be involved with schooling from an early age, despite their culture’s belief that girls do not need an

education.
Another highlight that occurs is the conflict of the leader of the Taliban, Maulana Fazlullah, claiming he is a speaker of the Holy Quran, Islam’s holy book, over the radio.

He earns the trust of the people of Swat when his radio station originates and gradually starts to preach extreme ideas. Fazlullah spreads ideas such as girls who do not attend school will enter into Heaven, and due to his popularity, people practice what Fazlullah preaches (Yousafzai and Lamb 114-120). This passage is important to Malala’s story because it shows that Fazlullah deceives the people of Swat by taking advantage of people’s trust in him to promote the Taliban’s ideologies. This reflects Malala’s main point of her memoir by demonstrating that many people receive news over the radio due to their illiteracy, which leads to people being misinformed about the news, therefore taken advantage

of.
Next, another major highlight of the book is when the Taliban calls for all girls’ school to close. This threat against schools leads for a BBC radio correspondent, Abdul Hai Kakar, to reach out to Malala to write a diary about their life under the Taliban. Malala decides to write an anonymous diary about her life in order to give a primary source relating to the educational issue in Pakistan at the time. Malala continues to write about the ban on girls' schools, despite the discouragement that she experiences when the school she attends, her father’s school, closes down due to the ban (Yousafzai and Lamb 154-159). This passage relates to Malala’s main point throughout the memoir by showing that Malala withholds such an immense amount of passion for the right of girls that she is willing to face the danger of the Taliban in order to publish her diary for the world to view.