"I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai

Genre: Non-fiction

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I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai is the amazing true story of a young girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban. Malala Yousafzai was born in Swat, Pakistan, to a Muslim family where girls were hated, and thought to be a sign of bad luck. As she said, “[Malala] was a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children”. Despite what most Pashtons believed, however, Malala's father, Ziauddin, fell in love with her and raised her as a normal child. Education for girls was not popular in Pakistan. The citizens of the city thought that girls were not worthy enough to attend a school, and thus it was not necessarily safe for a girl to go. However, as Malala grew up, she realized how important education is to all people-boys and girls. She made a promise to not let anybody take that away from her. When the Taliban took over, they started blowing up schools all over Pakistan; as a result over 400 schools were destroyed and the governor's deputy announced that all girl's schools would close. Girls were no longer allowed to attend school. However, Malala didn't let that stop her. As she said,”The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn't stop our minds from thinking.” When Malala was twelve a documentary was made about her-what it was like for a girl living in Pakistan-and a blog with diary entries from her was posted on the internet. Her mother was worried about her participating in these things because the Taliban would shoot and beat people publicly if they just found one thing wrong about someone. Malala's mother was afraid that they would single Malala out. However, her father, let her participate because he said that the Taliban had never singled out a young child-specifically a girl-before. For several years Malala lived a normal life-or at least as normal a life as a girl living in communist-run Pakistan can. However, one day, Tuesday, October 9, 2012, Malala was returning home on the Pashton school bus, when the Taliban stopped the bus, and after inquiring who Malala was, shot her point-blank in the head. Malala was rushed to a Pashton hospital, and after the doctors couldn't do anything more for her, was flown to a hospital in Burningham England where the doctors didn't expect her to live very long. Malala was in a coma for a week and in ICU for even longer, but she miraculously survived. As she reovered, instead of tearing her down, Malala has used her story to touch millions of hearts around the globe. She became the youngest person to receive the Noble Peace Prize;she has also received numerous other awards. Malala's extraordinary recovery has taken her to the United Nations in New York where she spoke on how important education is to-not just the Pashtun girls-but people all over the world.. At twenty years old, she continues to campaign for education and has started the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization that supports education advocates around the world. I Am Malala is the amazing story of the courage of one girl who fought to bring education in her country. This book will make you realize the blessing of freedom ad the power of one person's voice.

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