I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban Hardcover – October 8, 2013

IF you are only going to read one book this year, make it THIS book. There is no book more worthy being sold today. Author Christina Lamb does an extraordinary job bringing Malala, her story, and her family to life. In fact, I predict that you will be greatly inspired by Malala, a girl of tremendous bravery. At the same time, you will be awed by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai. I know that I am.I recognize that there are great men living among us, but sometimes it take an epic event for their presence to be known outside their limited geography. Rarely do men take the lead in fighting for women’s rights. But in this book you will read about a man who has been fighting for women’s rights for his entire life. That man’s name is Ziauddin Yousafzai. Ziauddin is the Pakistani father of the very famous Malala Yousafzai, the heroine of this book. Malala is the courageous young woman who stood up for the education of girls in Pakistan. As a result, Malala was shot in the head by a member of the Taliban.Malala is an exceptionally brave young woman. But, her father was more brave. There could have been no Malala without Ziauddin, a man of astounding courage who has fought for his entire life for the education of all children in Pakistan, boys and girls. When Malala was born, no one in the family was happy because she was a baby girl. But Ziauddin stunned all by not only being happy about his daughter’s birth, but was extremely vocal about his pride to be the father of a daughter. He insisted that his daughter be included in the family tree, much to the horror of other family members. (Sadly, in most of the Muslim world, when daughters are born, everyone goes quiet with grief. When sons are born, celebrations go on for days.)And so from the beginning of her life, Ziauddin’s daughter was lavished with love, attention, and books. From the moment she reached the age of understanding, she knew that her father “had her back” and he would fight to the death to ensure that she, a mere girl in other’s eyes, would be treated equally with her two brothers. And so Malala grew into her teenage years feeling confident that she had the right to speak her mind, to study, to learn, and to have and pursue dreams. Ziauddin had taught his daughter how to struggle against injustice. And Malala learned how powerful a person can be who speaks out against injustice. Every child born deserves such a life. Malala's confidence in breathtaking in a country where most women are afraid to speak their mind about anything, at least outside the four walls of their homes.When reading this book, I adored Malala, and I marveled at Ziauddin. He grew up at a time when women’s feelings were not even considered, yet he respected women, and was proud to express his respect for females, insisting that his school be open to girls, too.Ziauddin is not only passionate and confident with his beliefs, but he is exceptionally wise about many aspects of life. Here are just a few tidbits in the book shared by Malala: “My father also loved to write poetry, sometimes about love, but often on controversial themes such as honor killings and women’s rights.”When a Mullah in their village started a campaign against Ziauddin’s school, open to girls and boys, Ziauddin was not afraid to fight back, telling others, ’Nim Mullah khatrai iman’ or, “A Mullah who is not fully learned is a danger to faith.” (After living in the Muslim world for many years, I KNOW that it takes extraordinary courage for anyone to speak out against a Mullah. Even powerful kings and dictators chose their words with care when addressing or discussing a Mullah!)When a doctor’s clinic was closed by the Taliban, the doctor approached Ziauddin for advice after the Taliban later offered to reopen the hospital. Ziauddin advised his friend, “Don’t accept good things from bad people.” He didn’t believe that a hospital protected by the Taliban was a good thing. He was right, and not afraid to speak out against the brutal Taliban.When the Taliban first came to their valley (SWAT) many people welcomed them with open arms, much to Ziauddin’s dismay, for he knew they were wolves in sheep’s clothing. Later after the Taliban completely took over and began to murder many people, everyone was forced to flee. When they returned to their village, they found a letter from a Pakistani soldier condemning the villagers for allowing the Taliban to gain control Swat. Ziauddin told his daughter, “This is typical. We people of Swat were first seduced by the Taliban, then killed by them and now blamed for them. Seduced, killed and blamed.” In fact, Ziauddin was being generous. He was never seduced. In fact, he fought against the Taliban from the first day until the last.When Ziauddin received death threats from the Taliban, he refused to give up his activities to educate children or to stop warning his friends against cooperating with the Taliban. Even after his friends were shot in the face by the Taliban, he kept on course. Everyone believed that Ziauddin would be next.But it was his bold and courageous daughter who was shot.After the attempted murder of Malala, we learn from Malala that her father "…argued that all he had ever wanted was to create a school in which children could learn….” “My only ambition,” Ziauddin said, is to educate my children and my nation as much as I am able. But when half of your leaders tell lies and the other half negotiating with the Taliban, there is nowhere to go. One has to speak out.”Although Ziauddin was unusually courageous, he was often frustrated, once saying, “I have a school, but I am neither a khan nor a political leader. I have no platform. I am only one small man.”I beg to differ: Ziauddin, you are NOT a small man. You are a lion of a man, the greatest of men, one of the most courageous men I’ve ever had the pleasure to read about — a man unafraid to go against entrenched ideas and prejudices fully embraced by your society.When Mala’s mother continued to believe that women should not go out of the house, and should not speak to any man not of her family, Ziauddin told his wife: “Pekai, purdah is not only in the veil, purdah is in the heart.”Ziauddin kept a famous poem (written by Martin Niemoller, who lived in Nazi Germany) in his pocket:First they came for the communists,and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.Then they came for the socialists,and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews,and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Jew.Then they came for the Catholics,and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Catholic.Then they came for me,and there was no one left to speak for me.I have discovered that it is very difficult to bring positive kind of change to our world. And, as hard as women might fight against abuses, we cannot bring this kind of massive social change until men stand by our side. If only every thinking men would come forward like Ziauddin Yousafzai to fight for women’s rights. If only every man would live as Ziauddin Yousafzi has lived, soon we could defeat the abuses man inflicts upon women.Ziauddin Yousafzi is a modest man, calling himself a “small man,” but in fact he is one of the greatest men ever to walk this earth. I am sure that his daughter Malala will agree with me. Because of her father, she embraces the world with a strong spirit and great intelligence.Malala is receiving the praise and support that se deserves. Let's not forget her father, the man who made a girl named Malala possible. We should all nominate Ziauddin Yousafzi for next year’s Nobel peace prize, and for the TIMES man of the year. We need to hold him up as the kind of hero young boys should emulate. We need many more men like Malala's father.Ziauddin Yousafzi is a real man.

I am Malala (Little, Brown & Co. Pub.: 2013), 327 pages text plus 16 pages of photographs.I am Malala: The Girl who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban is a worthy read. I mostly read this book in the backseat of our Kia on a recent cross country road trip between Oregon and Nebraska. I learned so much about Pakistan and the Muslim people that I never knew I didn’t know. When I finished the book I had a lot of compassion for the people caught in the political and religious wars in the Middle East. Malala claims in the book a few times that she believes the Islamist extremists who are murdering people in the name of Allah are not true Muslims because nowhere does her holy book, the Quran, instruct Muslims to murder people to bring Allah glory. She believes her people were misled because so many are illiterate and cannot read the Quran for themselves. Many Pakistanis memorize the Quran in Arabic, but the people don’t speak Arabic and don’t know what the words mean. So when the Pakistani Taliban starts a radio program telling people how to wear their clothes, trim their beards and be better Muslims, they believed it, because they truly wanted to be better Muslims. But the Pakistani Taliban turned out to be using and abusing the Pakistani people living in the rural area of northern Pakistan. Malala speaks compassionately about her people in Pakistan. She probably has a future career in politics in Pakistan. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book.1. Pakistan became a sovereign, independent Muslim nation on August 14, 1947. Mohammad Ali Jinnah is the founder of Pakistan. Swat became part of Pakistan in 1969. In 1977 General Zia ul-Haq seized control of Pakistan, executed the elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. General Zia then launched a campaign of Islamization in Pakistan. General Zia set up prayer committees in every district and appointed 100,000 prayer inspectors. [Pakistan numbered 84.2 million people in 1981.] Then General Zia called the mullahs to Islamabad to teach them how to give sermons. General Zia greatly restricted women’s rights in Pakistan. He opened madrasas or religious schools and replaced the school curriculum with Islamyat, or Islamic studies. He also started a military intelligence service which Malala calls ISI. [“ISI - the Pakistan intelligence agency; a powerful and almost autonomous political and military force; has procured nuclear technology and delivery capabilities; has had strong ties with the Taliban and other militant Islamic groups.” According to The Free Dictionary by Farlex, http://www.thefreedictionary.com.] The ISI trained Afghan refugees to become mujahedeen, or resistance fighters. It was during this time that a Saudi millionaire, named Osama bin Laden, went to Pakistan to train to be a resistance fighter. (pp. 30-32).2. “Just in front of the school on Khushal Street, where I was born, was the house of a tall handsome mullah and his family. His name was Ghulamullah, and he called himself a mufti, which means he is an Islamic scholar and authority on Islamic law, though my father complains that anyone with a turban can call himself a maulana or mufti. The school was doing well, and my father was building an impressive reception area with an arched entrance in the boys’ high school. For the first time my mother could buy nice clothes and even send out for food as she had dreamed of doing back in the village. But all this time the mufti was watching. He watched the girls going in and out of our school every day and became angry, particularly as some of the girls were teenagers. “That maulana has a bad eye on us,” said my father one day. He was right.Shortly afterward the mufti went to the woman who owned the school premises and said, “Ziauddin is running a haram school in your building and bringing shame on the mohalla [neighborhood]. These girls should be in purdah.” He told her, “Take this building back from him and I will rent it for my madrasa. If you do this you will get paid now and also receive a reward in the next world.”She refused and her son came to my father in secret. “This maulana is starting a campaign against you,” he warned. “We won’t give him the building but be careful.”My father was angry. “Just as we say, ‘Nim hakim khatrai jan’—‘Half a doctor is a danger to one’s life,’ so ‘Nim mullah khatrai iman’—‘A mullah who is not fully learned is a danger to faith,’” he said.I am proud that our country was created as the world’s first Muslim homeland, but we still don’t agree on what this means. The Quran teaches us sabar—patience—but often it feels that we have forgotten the word and think Islam means women sitting at home in purdah or wearing burqas while men do jihad. We have many strands of Islam in Pakistan. Our founder Jinnah wanted the rights of Muslims in India to be recognized, but the majority of people in India were Hindu. It was as if there were a feud between two brothers and they agreed to live in different houses. So British India was divided in August 1947, and an independent Muslim state was born…. We Muslims are split between Sunnis and Shias—we share the same fundamental beliefs and the same Holy Quran, but we disagree over who was the right person to lead our religion when the Prophet died in the seventh century. The man chosen to be the leader or caliph was Abu Bakr, a close friend and adviser of the Prophet and the man he chose to lead prayers as he lay on his deathbed. “Sunni” comes from the Arabic for “one who follows the traditions of the Prophet.” But a smaller group believed that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet’s own family and that Ali, his son-in-law and cousin, should have taken over. They became known as Shias, shortened from Shia-t-Ali, the Party of Ali.” (pp. 90-92.)3. “I sat on the rocks and thought about the fact that across the water were lands where women were free. In Pakistan we had had a woman prime minister and in Islamabad I had met those impressive working women, yet the fact was that we were a country where almost all the women depend entirely on men. My headmistress Maryam was a strong educated woman, but in our society she could not live on her own and come to work. She had to be living with a husband, brother or parents. In Pakistan when women say they want independence, people think this means we don’t want to obey our fathers, brothers or husbands. But it does not mean that. It means we want to make decisions for ourselves. We want to be free to go to school or to go to work. Nowhere is it written in the Quran that a woman should be dependent on a man. The word has not come down from the heavens to tell us that every woman should listen to a man.” (pp. 218-219.)Malala is probably best known as the young Muslim girl who was shot in the face, at close range, by the Pakistan Taliban as she sat on a school bus, surrounded by her classmates, coming home from school. Against all odds, this remarkable young lady survived. In this book she says her family is living in England. She is still going to school and still thriving.Since I read I am Malala she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, “The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 was awarded jointly to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2014/). She seems to be a strong, sincere Muslim teenager whose heart longs to champion women’s rights in Pakistan. I look forward to see where life takes this impressive young lady.I bought this book on Amazon.com. No one paid me for my book review. This review originally appeared in www.jaynechaseloseke.com on December 5, 2014. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Malala representa grande parte das causas sociais e políticas das mulheres. Este livro mostra um pouco do valor de lutar pelos nossos objetivos e a necessidade de combater as opressões de gênero. Recomendo como leitura para qualquer hora. Muitas lições podemos tirar da incrível história de Malala. E perceber que todos podem ajudar na causa feminista, inclusive os homens. No livro, percebe-se que entre as pessoas que estiveram do lado dos direito das mulheres com Malala foi seu próprio pai.

Aunque es un producto de segunda mano, su conservación es excelente. No dudaré en comprar más cosas de segunda mano ya que salen muy económicas y su estado es realmente bueno.

Tanto desde el punto de vista literario como humano me parece una excelente autobiografía. Considero que Malala y Cristina hicieron una excelente mancuerna al momento de transcribir una vida llena de emoción en un entorno que nos hace ver más allá de lo que las noticias eligen que veamos. Es sorprendente y admirable lo que una niña /adolescente puede enseñarnos, es tan elocuente en su historia como lo es en sus discursos.

Viene un poco golpeado de las esquinas y la textura de la portada se siente rara

Valeu conhecer a experiência de quem vive em uma cultura diferente, complicada, e pôde usar isso a favor de divulgar boas ideias ao mundo e defender causas nobres.