This memoir follows the life story of a girl named Malala, growing up in Pakistan and living through the rise of the Taliban. The memoir paints a history of the Swat and Pakistan through the eyes of both Malala and her father. I am Malala pays great attention to the role of her father in impacting her growth and somewhat shaping her into the woman she is today.
Malala’s story is best illustrated as one of a war against education and a girl’s personal war against this larger war. The Taliban rises in Pakistan shortly after the September 9/11 attacks and Pakistan essentially erupts into an ongoing period of civil war that divides the country and gives way to a gross line of injustices. These injustices are most starkly felt by women and girls who are hindered from receiving an education, ostracized and regarded as inferior by the religious extremists in Pakistan. This is a very different reality than the one Malala grew up in. Of being valued and empowered by her family and most especially her father. It is perhaps because of her unconventional upbringing with a father who saw her as just as valuable as a son and being raised in a school that causes her to go on to empower women and girls.
Education and the power thereof is clearly exemplified in this book with the rise of the Taliban. Creating a barrier to education keeps people ignorant and thus more susceptible to blindly following an ideology. Without education, Malala’s story and that of her family would have been significantly different to one of standing against the Taliban’s forces in Pakistan.
There is a shift in this book that is very similar to that of Persepolis with Marji who like Malala receives an education and grows up in a considerably progressive family but later being denied her right or being restricted because of the rise of the religious right. Malala like Marji is able to continue her education because of coming from families who value it. This is very unlike the story of Salva in a Long Walk to Water. The other books also have this in common theme of education being disrupted due to conflict. Malala unlike the other leads in the books is very aware of the power of an education and uses this knowledge to empower people and speak up against the Taliban in a way that will always be remembered looking back at history.
