I AM MALALA

“When I overheard my father talking about this, I said, “Why not me?” I wanted people to know what was happening. Education is our right, I said. Just as it is our right to sing. Islam has given us this right and says that every girl and boy should go to school. The Quran says we should seek knowledge, study hard and learn the mysteries of our world” (154)

“I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the taliban’ but the ‘girl who fought for education.’ This is the cause to which I want to devote my life”(309)

“I had decided very early I would not be like that. My father always said, “Malala will be free as a bird.” I dreamed of going to the top of Mount Elum like Alexander the Great to touch Jupiter and even beyond the valley. But, as I watched my brothers running across the roof, flying their kites and skillfully flicking the strings back and forth to cut each other’s down, I wondered how free a daughter could ever be” (26)