APPENDIX I SUMMARY OF I AM MALALA, Exams of English Literature

Download APPENDIX I SUMMARY OF I AM MALALA and more Exams English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! 37 APPENDIX I SUMMARY OF I AM MALALA This novel is about Malala Yousafzai, a fifteen-year-old girl from Pakistan's Swat Valley, who was shot by the Taliban on her way home from school. Malala was born in a Pashtun family in the Swat Valley of northern Pakistan. Despite the fact that a daughter's birth is not usually celebrated, her father was thrilled when she was born and named her after a Pashtun heroine, Malalai of Maiwand, who died in a battle after using her words and bravery to inspire her people to fight and win against the powerful British army. Malala grow up in Swat. She and her family lived in Mingora, the largest city in Swat. When Malala was born her family was very poor, living only off of the small amount of money her father made from the school he had started. Her brother Kushal was born two years after her, and her brother Atal five years after him. Malala was known among her peers for participating in everything and being top of the class. The Kushal School began to attract more students, so Malala and her family had enough money to move into a nicer house. Some cousins and friends lived in the house with them. Malala's father made a point of giving away openings in the school to poor children so that they could learn. Malala wanted him to give openings to a couple of children she had seen living and working at a rubbish heap. But on the other hand, there’s a mufti who is trying to close the Kushal school. He came to the school and insisted to the woman who owned the building that the school was shameful because it taught girls, who should be in purdah . The owner and her son warned Malala's father that the mufti was trying to close them down. The mufti continued to try to shut the school, bringing in a delegation of influential people to tell Malala's father that schooling girls is blasphemous because the Quran does’nt mention any women by name. The mufti’s efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, but Malala and her family knew there were others who believed like he did. The Taliban came to Swat Valley when Malala was ten years old. Their leader was Maulana Fazlullah, who had begun his takeover through the radio by broadcasting his plans as an Islamic reformer, instructing people to give up certain behaviors if they wanted to be good Muslims. He sounded charismatic and rational and many people supported him. Fazlullah directed many of his broadcasts specifically at women, insisting that they must remain in the home according to the Quran, but Malala knew that the holy book did not really say that. One of the biggest things that the rising Taliban advocated against was girls' education. Whenever women would leave the house and go to the market, the Taliban would shout at them to go home until they did. Fazlullah also began holding a local court called a shura, 38 which resulted in barbaric punishments like public whippings for mundane crimes. The Taliban stopped polio vaccinations, spoke against the Americans, and patrolled the streets for people who did not follow their demands. After his radio station had been on the air for over a year, Fazlullah started to get more aggressive, pushing for the human sacrifice of politicians and political activists who tried to stand against him. Slowly, Malala's father was encouraged to speak out against this budding regime, and he became a public figure in the process. The Taliban began to eliminate all of the things in the Swat Valley. Malala felt that the Taliban saw people as nothing more than little dolls to control. They even pushed for women to wear burqas, which kept a woman's body entirely covered up even her face. Throughout these dark days, school kept Malala moving forward. Some of the girls began to drop out of school as the threat worsened, and the Taliban began blowing up girls' schools. Malala's father constantly talked to her about the need for courage in their efforts to get rid of the Taliban. Since then she began to be outspoken and did may interviews against the Taliban on how they re restricting women right. Hr life began to feel threatened but she never believe that the Taliban would hurt a girl like her. Till one day after her exam, Malala took the bus home from school. This was the day the bus was stopped by a strange man who asked for her by name, and then shot her.