50 pages • 1 hour read
Malala Yousafzai, Patricia McCormickI Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 2, Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “A Shadow Over Our Valley”
Chapter 6 Summary: “Radio Mullah”
On the radio, a mullah tearfully tells his followers to stop listening to music, watching movies, and dancing, or else God will send another earthquake to punish them. Malala knows this is patently untrue—an earthquake is a natural geologic event—but many of the women who listen are uneducated and raised to do what their religious leaders tell them. This Radio Mullah declares that music is haram, or forbidden, by Islam. He instructs men to grow their beards longer and women to always stay home in purdah.
People, especially women, find the Mullah charismatic and initially approve of the Mullah’s message to return to daily prayer and embrace Islamic law rather than rely on the inadequate Pakistani judicial system. Malala’s father, however, tells them not to listen. He discovers that the radio speaker is Maulana Fazlullah, a TNSM leader with no religious background. On the radio, Fazlullah begins naming individuals and calling them sinful.
Malala still enjoys listening to her father’s political conversations, but now that she is older, she must do so more covertly. Men discuss the Radio Mullah and the fighting in Afghanistan, which is led by the United States. The United States seeks Osama bin Laden and wants to topple the Taliban, who protect him. Malala’s father warns that the Taliban will come to Pakistan. Malala asks God how she can help and vows to ignore all the talk about Fazlullah, but when she gets to school, she discovers that Fazlullah has declared that girls’ schools are now haram.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Taliban in Swat”
The Radio Mullah inveighs against girls’ schools, polio vaccinations, children’s games, music and video stores, and even televisions, calling them all Western and un-Islamic. In fear, many people take their electronics to the town square and burn them.
The Taliban exert more control over the Swat region of Pakistan, which includes Mingora, Malala’s home city. The government does little to stop them or protect people from their restrictions. Fazlullah holds a public court where men and women are flogged for disobeying his rules. Later in his rule, followers take people from their homes and kill them, leaving their bodies in the square as grim messages to “spies and infidels” (49).
When Malala turns 10, Fazlullah declares war on the government, and Malala has her first personal encounter with the Taliban. Her cousin’s car is stopped as they travel to Shangla. An armed Taliban member says Malala and her mother must wear burqas. The encounter makes Malala angry and frustrated. Fazlullah preaches that girls who go to school are bad Muslims. This message impacts the Khushal School: More students leave, and some teachers also leave or refuse to teach girls.
Malala’s father, with her mother’s support, attends meetings and speaks out against the Taliban. Malala is proud of her parents, knowing they are different from traditional Pashtun couples, but she worries for her father’s safety. Malala worries even more when a note appears on the Khushal School gate warning that the school is “Western and infidel” and threatening her family and the school.
Chapter 8 Summary: “No One Is Safe”
Malala’s father responds to the note from the Fedayeen of Islam, or devotees of Islam, in a letter in the newspaper. He asks them not to hurt schoolchildren. Family friends praise his bravery, but few come forward to join him in speaking out. For their safety, Malala’s father decides to change the boys’ school uniforms to the traditional shalwar kamiz instead of their “Western” shirt and trousers. The Taliban declare that girls are not supposed to wear a white shalwar. Malala is angry: She does not like being afraid and feeling like a criminal in her school uniform. Malala believes that education is a right, not a crime.
Malala is 10 years old in 2007 when Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, returns to the country after nearly nine years living in exile in the United Kingdom. Bhutto was the first female prime minister of the country and a “role model” for young girls. Two months later, Malala and her family watch live on television while Bhutto gives a speech. As Bhutto stands on the seat of her car and waves to the crowd, she is shot and killed. Malala’s family is shocked: Killing women is against the Pashtunwali code. Malala realizes that no one is safe in Pakistan if even Benazir Bhutto can be killed. Malala thinks about the television interviews she has done about girls’ education and secretly promises herself that she will fight for women’s rights and democracy in Pakistan.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Candy from the Sky”
At school one day in 2007, Malala and the students and staff are startled by the sound of army helicopters flying overhead. When they run outside, the soldiers toss toffee candies down to them. They are happy, thinking the army will rescue them from Fazlullah and that peace is imminent. The Taliban retreat, and the streets fill with soldiers. Malala and her brothers stay indoors. The same night that the army imposes a curfew, Malala and her family are startled when blasts shake the house: The Taliban are bombing nearby. The army returns gunfire. The conflict continues for a year and a half. Malala and her brothers are so frightened, they sleep in their parents’ room—Malala on a pile of blankets on the floor.
Malala and her brothers learn to recognize where the fighting is taking place and what kind of attacks are going on. The Taliban use bombs and suicide bombers, and the army uses rocket shells fired from helicopters or mountaintops; both sides use machine guns.
During the frightening nights of violence, Malala recites the Ayat al-Kursi, a special verse from the Quran that is supposed to protect against devils and other perils. Malala recites it many times and asks God to bless everyone in the world. She and her family survive months of conflict, and Malala thinks her prayers for peace are answered when the army drives the Taliban into hiding.
Chapter 10 Summary: “2008: What Terrorism Feels Like”
During the year of conflict, Malala attends school whenever she can, though it is challenging with curfews and the army presence. She prays daily that the Khushal School will not be destroyed by the Taliban. Malala is now in upper school, where the subjects are harder and students are more competitive. The girls study hard not only to be at the top of the class, but also because their teachers’ praise makes them feel proud, confident, and purposeful. Malala admires her new teacher, the headmistress Madam Maryam, who is college educated and self-sufficient.
The Taliban continue to influence their lives. They shut off cable TV channels that show the haram Westernized world. They keep preaching on the radio and bomb targets closer to Malala’s home, including homes and stores of those who challenge Fazlullah. In 2008, the Taliban bomb 200 schools. Malala does not know why the Taliban find schools so dangerous.
Malala learns that war is an open conflict, while terrorism causes constant fear and uncertainty. Malala and her family react to the tension by adopting strange habits: Her father walks a different route home every day, and Malala avoids the kitchen because when bombs struck closest to her home, she was in that room. Malala’s father comforts her by saying that though nights are frightening, they feel strong again in the morning.
Part 2, Chapters 6-10 Analysis
In Part 2, Malala focuses on the expanding influence of the Taliban in the Swat region of Pakistan and its impact on her family and city. She observes the conflict the Taliban create between religion and education and even the tension they engender within Islam itself. Malala’s description of the Taliban is colored by her personal memories and experiences—notably how the Taliban affect her freedoms as a student and female. Malala continues to build on themes that are important to her: the right to education and equal treatment for women.
The Radio Mullah preys both on peoples’ fear following the earthquake and on their discontent with Pakistani law. Women especially find the Radio Mullah’s sermons appealing. Malala recognizes that many of the women who are susceptible to the Radio Mullah’s words are uneducated, suggesting that an ignorant populace is easier for the Taliban to control. While Malala knows that the earthquake is a natural event, other women follow their religious leaders’ instruction, or faith, rather than science. Ironically, the Radio Mullah has no religious background.
The Taliban’s ideology is militant and fundamentalist. Malala details how the Taliban, through fear and force, strive to eliminate Western influences that they deem sinful. Even at 10 years old, Malala does not understand how harmless Bollywood television shows, music, and girls’ schools are contrary to what her God believes. In his response to the threatening note from Feyadeen of Islam, Malala’s father emphasizes that the Taliban and his children pray to the same God—but his attempt to indicate the commonality of their religion illustrates the growing rift between the larger population of Muslims and the Taliban extremists.
The Taliban impose increasing restrictions on Pakistani freedoms and introduce severe consequences for disobedience. Malala recognizes that the Taliban’s edicts are especially repressive for women, banning them from public places, directing them to cover themselves completely with a burqa, restricting their social contact, and targeting female education. While Malala fears the Taliban’s power, she is also outraged by what she perceives as injustice. She disagrees that she is “bringing shame” by not wearing a burqa and adamantly believes that education is her right, not a crime. Her indignation spikes when Benazir Bhutto is assassinated.
Malala describes Bhutto as a role model for “girls like me” (54). Bhutto served twice as Prime Minister of Pakistan and was the first woman to lead a democratic government in a Muslim country. She studied at Harvard and Oxford universities and worked to advance women’s rights during her tumultuous terms. Although Bhutto’s leadership was troubled by opposition, accusations of corruption, and inexperience, Bhutto was highly popular in Pakistan and viewed as a champion, even martyr, for women’s rights and democracy. One reason Bhutto’s death shocks Malala is that it contradicts the Pashtunwali code that the Pashtun live by, showing that the Taliban do not respect these basic cultural morals. Bhutto’s death inspires Malala to continue Bhutto’s pursuit of peace.
Malala’s father also continues to be a model of courage and resolution. He stands up to Taliban repression in the face of threats and danger to his family. Few others are brave enough to join him. Malala is frustrated and angry that she and her family are forced to live in fear.
School continues to be a haven of freedom when Mingora becomes like a “prison.” At school, Malala and her fellow students find acceptance, support, and equality. The female headmistress, Madam Maryam, encourages their dreams. They institute a democracy, changing seats weekly so everyone has a chance to sit up front. School is everything for the girls that the outside world is not, and Malala believes passionately that she must emulate her father and Bhutto and speak out for girls’ education and peace.
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