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I am Malala: The Girl who Stood up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban

Malala Yousufzai book review book recommendation

Moved by the dismal state of Afghanistan after the Taliban insurgency and historic evidence of its long standing ties with Pakistan, I wanted to explore more into the matter and that's when I came across the book 
 

The book recounts the life of Malala Yousafzai, a children education rights activist and the youngest Nobel Prize winner, from a child till the moment which, according to her, 'changed her life' when in the year 2012, she was shot by the Taliban.

The book of Malala is of immense courage and belief in oneself and the devotion for a 

cause, in her case- education of millions of children across the globe.


“When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is.”.


Education for most of us is a common thing. But hailing from a conservative country Pakistan, where females are restricted from a lot of things, education for girls was not a popular idea. Believing immensely in the power of pens and books, Malala decided to defy this popular fate and stood up against the Taliban who were attacking a lot of such schools in her valley. She gave a lot of interviews and public speeches in support of girls' education and the condition of her valley under Taliban control. Clearly they might not like it and there were a lot of attempts to intimidate her. But with the support of her father, who himself was the principal of her school, she stood firm and started gathering a lot of support for her cause, until on one October 9, 2012, a masked gunmen shot her.



The book also brings out the deeply webbed and absurd state of politics with Pakistan whose intelligence agencies are said to be sharing deep ties with the Taliban. 

It holds much significance in today’s context as we are all aware of the dismal condition of Afghanistan with the takeover of the Taliban. It brings the condition of the ground to the fore and makes us aware of the situation in a deeper manner than what is known through the media. This was my primary reason to read the book.

However, the real work of the book is not its factual and detailed recount of Malala’s life. It is it’s humanitarian touch that keeps the audience glued till the end. The book is an inspiration for all those feeling moved by life and depicts how worse off some people are than we are. Yet the courage lies in facing the storm and standing up against all odds, for, as she says, "life is not just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide."

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