A review by NaSa
It was a case of love-at-first-sight with her. I don’t remember when I first saw her angelic face or first got her brief introduction – a girl shot by the Taliban or the youngest Nobel Prize awardee – but I remember that the moment I saw her beautiful smile I fell in love with her. However, it wasn’t until recently that I actually researched about her and got to know her story, Malala’s story.
‘I am Malala,’ the book cover proudly displays and aptly so. I started reading the book with a notion that the book couldn’t offer anything more than all the videos I had already watched on the YouTube about her. Obviously, I was proved wrong even as I read the first 3-4 pages and why won’t I? Malala takes one through the journey of her life of 16 years, which might be small in numbers but huge in experiences,knitted along Pashtoon traditions, myths and beliefs in Islam and social, political and cultural way of life in the Swat Valley and Pakistan in entirety.
I remember when I understood the importance of studies in my life but I can’t reveal what age was I then because here’s a girl who at the age of 11 not only knows how important education is for her but also for the entire women folk and all the children around the world. Here’s a girl who gives interviews to the national and international media openly about the restrictions the Taliban impose about girls’ education in her country and becomes their target but is still not afraid of them. Here’s a girl who in a society where most girls usually dreamt of getting married and make children dreams to be a politician to change ways and improve the state of education. Here’s a girl who by the time attains the age of sixteen has survived a gun shot from the point-black range, recovered from it and received the Nobel Prize. Literally, unprecedented!!!
We generally say ‘behind every successful man, there’s a woman but here’s an example of ‘behind every successful daughter, there’s a doting father.’ Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala’s father was the one who named her ‘Malala after Malalai of Maiwand, the greatest heroine of Afghanistan.’ Whereas for most Pashtuns, the day a girl is born is a gloomy day, for Ziauddin Yousafai birth of his girl was a proud moment. He fell in love with is little daughter the moment he saw her and promised that Malala would be a free bird and pursue her dreams.
Here’s a father whose greatest ever dream was to run a school of his own in his region and he succeeds in it after much difficulties and here’s a daughter who takes up this mission to spread the message of importance of education to the world and not only makes her father but the entire world proud of her.
There’s more to the book ‘I am Malala;’ read it yourself for that. It’s surely going to inspire, impress and have an impact on you.J
