I Am Malala Summary

It begins by Malala talking about the Taliban first coming to her valley when she was 10, and the changes that they forced upon her community. She talks about the Taliban leader, Maulana Fazlullah, a 28-year-old, who was from the Swat River, who had taken up the role after the initial leader Sufi Mohammed was imprisoned. Fazlullah had set up an illegal radio station to get information out about reforming Islam and the way that it should be practiced. He first began by spreading a positive message and encouraging people to follow the Quran and give up bad practices like smoking and using heroin. His message soon after changed and became very negative, and he began creating many rules like watching movies and listening to CDS was bad. He also began telling people he had a better understanding of God and knew why things were happening like the causes of earthquakes that killed hundreds of people was because of their sins. Fazullah’s strategy to gain power was feed off of people’s fear and vulnerability to convince them to do things that they wouldn’t agree to before. After he and his followers gained power they started acting like the criminals they used to target by kidnapping and stealing. Fazlullah also began to harshly target women
Malala’s father is speaking to a group of people about why the need to speak the truth and go against the Taliban. There’s a baby girl in the audience and picks her up saying to everyone “This girl is our future. Do we want her to be ignorant?”... “The crowd agreed that they would sacrifice themselves before giving up their daughters’ education”(144). To speak the truth you need to be educated and know the history and why things are the way they are. If that baby was not educated she would not be able to speak out about injustice and change the future of another little