Who Is Malala Yousafzai? When Malala Yousafzai (mah-LAH-lah yoo-sahf-ZIGH) was a little girl in Mingora, Pakistan, she decided to be a doctor when she grew up. She knew she would have to go to school for many years and study very hard. But Malala didn’t mind at all. She loved everything about school. She loved reading. She loved history and geography and science. She loved studying religion. She enjoyed writing and reading stories aloud to her classmates.
When her teacher talked about something new, she couldn’t wait to learn more. Tests were difficult, but they were fun, too, especially when she had studied hard and knew the answers.
Then, when Malala was ten years old, her life changed. War came to Mingora, the city where she lived. A group of violent fighters called the Taliban had taken over her beloved Swat Valley.
They were saying that girls would soon be stopped from going to school. Not boys. Just girls.
The Taliban started destroying girls’ schools. The Pakistan Army arrived to stop them. Mingora became a war zone. It was very dangerous. People were afraid to go out.
Malala wondered how she could ever become a doctor if she wasn’t allowed to learn. She wished there was something she could do to help keep her school open. Many were closed, and few students dared to go to the ones that were open. But Malala went to school every day.
Malala spoke out. She told local newspapers that she was afraid the Taliban would close her school. She talked about how frightening her life had become. She said that more than anything, she wanted to go to school.
Malala was becoming famous. People were talking about her. Some Taliban fighters learned her name and decided to take revenge. On October 9, 2012, two of them stopped her school bus. One walked around to the back and looked inside. Then he shot Malala.
Malala Yousafzai was lucky to survive. She was f lown to a hospital where she recovered.
Did she stop speaking out?
No.
When she was better, she went on working for the right of all children to be educated. But she never stopped learning and studying and going to school.
On July 12, 2013, she addressed hundreds of young people at the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York City. “So here I stand, one girl among many,” she said. “I speak—not for myself, but for all girls and boys. I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.”
Malala Yousafzai wanted one thing—an education. She spoke up, and people listened. Things began to change, little by little, until the whole world was listening.
Copyright © 2015 by Dinah Brown; Illustrated by Andrew Thomson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
