MALALA YOUSAFZAI

WARRIOR WITH WORDS

By Karen Leggett Abouraya

Illustrated by L.C. Wheatley

Dedicated to my mother, Jean Leggett, for her unshakable
dedication to education, for herself, her children,
and her students. —K. L. A.

For J.B. & N.P. —L. C. W.

AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi, File

Text copyright © 2014 by Karen Leggett Abouraya.
Art copyright © 2014 by L.C. Wheatley.
All rights reserved.

Published by StarWalk Kids Media
Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles,
no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission from the publisher.
Contact: Starwalk Kids Media, 15 Cutter Mill Road, Suite 242, Great Neck, NY 11021

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ISBN 978-1-63083-042-7

Malala is a miracle
in pink. Malala is
a warrior with words.
Malala Yousafzai did
not celebrate her
sixteenth birthday with
a sleepover, but with a
stand-up.

It was a miracle that
she could stand at all.
She stood up in front
of the whole world to
prove that words have
power.

Malala stood up in
front of hundreds of
young people and world
leaders gathered at the
United Nations. “We will
bring change through
our voice,” she said. She
asked every nation to
make it possible for every
child to go to school
for free.

Every child.
Every country.
Free school.
“Our words can
change the world.”

Where did Malala learn what she could
do with her voice and her words?

Malala was born in Mingora on the
River Swat in northern Pakistan. She
remembers “my Swat” as a land of sweet
green valleys and mountains shimmering
with snow where people came to refresh
their spirits and be together with their
families.

Malala’s mother was the heart of their
home. She is quiet, but she is a strong and
determined supporter of her daughter.
Malala’s two little brothers kept chickens.
Malala kept books and also a notebook
filled with her own words. Malala’s father
named his daughter after Malala of
Maiwand, a brave woman whose poetry
helped save her village from invaders more
than 100 years ago.

When the Taliban came to power in the Swat Valley,
they said girls should not go to school. Malala’s father,
Ziauddin Yousafzai, was the principal of a school for
girls. He encouraged his daughter to tell the world
about those difficult days. Malala wrote a blog that was
printed in her native Urdu and also in English by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC). She used
the name Gul Makai so that no one would know who
was really writing the blog.

“I was getting ready
for school,” Malala wrote,
“when I remembered that
our principal had told us
not to wear uniforms and
come to school wearing
normal clothes instead.”

So Malala dressed in
her favorite pink and the
other girls also wore bright
colors. “During the morning
assembly we were told not
to wear colorful clothes as
the Taliban would object
to it.”

The Taliban ordered everyone to obey very strict rules. They
said that girls should not be educated and women should not work
outside their homes. Malala wrote that this was a very dark time.

“We have some people who are afraid of ghosts and some people
who are afraid of spiders, and in Swat we were afraid of humans
like us.”

Just before winter vacation,
the Taliban announced that all
schools for girls in the Swat
Valley would close on January
15. Many of Malala’s friends
were afraid. Only 11 students
came to a class that normally
had 27 children.

That spring, when
Pakistan’s army began fighting
the Taliban, Malala and her
family left the Swat Valley.

“Leaving home was like
we would be apart from our
heart,” Malala wrote, “because
our home was our heart. I had
to leave my books and my bag
and my school.”

When the fighting was over, Malala’s family returned to Mingora. The
destruction made them weep. The house was in chaos. Her brothers’
chickens had died. But, miraculously, the books in her room had not been
touched. “They are very precious,” she wrote.

Her father’s school opened again,
but many other schools had been destroyed.

“Education is
our basic right!”

Malala was sad and angry. She began writing
and speaking out to everyone who would listen
and she did not hide her name anymore. Malala
wanted to prove that peaceful words have
power over violence.

Every day she went to school with her pink
backpack and filled the pages of her notebook
with words. “Education is our basic right,” she
wrote. She won Pakistan’s first National Youth
Award for Peace in 2011.

On October 9, 2012, when she was riding home from
school, a man from the Taliban climbed on the bus and shot
Malala and two of her friends. Her friends were able to
recover in Pakistan, but Malala had been shot on the side
of her head. She was taken to a hospital in England that
specializes in treating wounded soldiers. Her family and
friends feared she might not live.

Miraculously, Malala recovered with no injury to her brain.
She spoke at the United Nations only nine months after the shooting.

“Nothing changed in my life except this,” Malala
declared, “weakness, fear, and hopelessness died.
Strength, power, and courage were born. I am the same
Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the
same. My dreams are the same.”

Malala and her brothers are now going to school
in England. Malala is sharing her dreams and her
words around the world. People around the world are
answering with rallies, prayer vigils, and marches, singing,
“I am Malala.”

With support from her parents and many other
people, she started the Malala Fund to give girls hope
for a better life. Forty girls in Malala’s beloved Swat are
now in school because of the Malala Fund. Malala talks
to them regularly on Skype. Other girls are sharing their
stories on the Malala Fund website.

Malala says her dream is to
be a politician and help save her
country. In 2013, the European
Parliament awarded Malala the
Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought, because of her courage
in defending the right of all
children to be educated.

Malala is a miracle in pink.
She is a warrior with words. She
wants every boy and girl to stand
up and speak out for the millions
of children who are not able to
go to school all over the world.

“Let us pick up our books
and pens. One child, one teacher,
one pen and one book can
change the world.”

Pakistan:
Important Dates in the Life of a Nation

Malala Yousafzai and her family are
Pashtun, a proud people who be-
long to about 60 different tribes. The
Pashtun people are Muslims who live in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The territories that are now
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India were
once part of the British Empire. The
British Parliament voted to end British
control over India in 1947. Muhammad
Ali Jinnah united Muslims in India and
worked hard to create an independent
homeland for his people. In 1947, the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan was estab-
lished as a majority Muslim country and
India became a majority Hindu country.

At first, Pakistan had two parts with
India in the middle. There have been
several wars between India and Pakistan,
usually because of disagreements about
their borders. In 1971, East Pakistan
became the independent country of
Bangladesh.

Benazir Bhutto
In 1988, Benazir Bhutto became Prime
Minister of Pakistan, the first female
prime minister in an Islamic country.
Malala greatly admires Benazir Bhutto
and considers her a role model. Benazir
Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan in
2007.

Rise of the Taliban
“Talib” is the word for “student” in
Pashto and Arabic. The Taliban are
Pashtuns who come from religious
schools that teach a very strict, conser-
vative form of Islam. Along with other
groups, they fought to end control of
Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union
(now Russia) from 1979 to 1996, when
the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.
They also wanted to control parts of
Pakistan where Pashtun Muslims lived,
especially the northwestern areas like
the Swat Valley.

In July 2009 the Pakistani Army an-
nounced that it had defeated the Taliban
in Swat. Families returned to Mingora
and the Swat Valley. However, the Taliban
remain in Swat and many other areas
of Pakistan and Afghanistan even today,
seeking to return to power.

Resources on Pakistan
BBC Pakistan profile:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/
world-south-asia-12965779

Baltimore County, MD, Public Schools—
Pakistani Heritage Resource Packet:
http://bcps.org/offices/oea/pdf/cultural_
heritage/Pakistani-Heritage-Resource-
Packet.pdf

What’s it like to live in Pakistan?
www.timeforkids.com/destination/pakistan/
day-in-life

You Can Help

Do you remember being excited the
first time you had your own backpack
or climbed on a school bus? Too many
children in the world never know that
excitement. Those are the children Malala
wants to help.

•57 million children around the world
are not going to school. That’s the
same as all the people who live in
California and New York combined.

•As many as half the children in coun-
tries where there is war or violence
are not able to go to school.

•Almost two-thirds of Pakistan’s poor
girls have never been to school at all.

Many organizations are working to help
boys and girls get to school.

The Malala Fund was started by
Malala and her friends and family. The
executive director of the Fund is Shiza
Shahid, another young Pakistani woman
who graduated from Stanford University
in the United States and once orga-
nized a summer camp for Malala and
other girls in the Swat Valley. Shiza says,
“Teaching someone you know who isn’t
going to school or helping someone who
is suffering or focusing your career on
what you believe will make a difference
in the future. We all have ways to make a
difference.”

School Girls Unite was
started in Maryland by middle
school girls who talked with
young women from Mali about
the unfair treatment of girls in
many poor countries. Together
these girls created an action
guide called “Girls Gone Activist.”
They also lobbied to start an
International Day of the Girl,
which is now celebrated every
year on October 11.

The United Nations Foundation’s
Girl Up gives American girls the
chance to become world leaders,
beginning by creating their own
girls clubs.

Girl Rising is a film about nine
extraordinary girls in Cambodia,
Haiti, Nepal, Egypt, Ethiopia,

India, Peru, Sierra Leone, and
Afghanistan—each one battling
many obstacles to go to school.

Global Campaign for
Education works to improve
education for both boys and girls,
all over the world.

Although many of these organiza-
tions are especially working with
girls, Malala is speaking up for
girls and boys who are not able
to go to school. “Dear brothers
and sisters, we want schools and
education for every child’s bright
future,” said Malala at the United
Nations.

For more information on these
organizations and how you can
help, look up their websites on
the Internet.

Read, Grow, Excel

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