Country quotes
I come from a country created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.
– p. 1
To be torn from the country that you love is not something to wish on anyone.
– p. 1
I am in a country… 5 hours behind my beloved homeland… But my country is centuries behind this one.
– p. 1
…my heart smiles when it looks at the people of Swat.
– p. 1
But we always come together against outsiders who try to conquer our lands.
– p. 10
We lived in the most beautiful place in the world.
– p. 11
In olden times Swat was called Uddyana, which means ‘garden’.
– p. 11
We were once a princely state…
– p. 11
Near our home was scattered with mysterious ruins.
– p. 12
The birds loved that tree.
– p. 13
So I was born a proud daughter of Pakistan, though like all Swatis I thought of myself first as Swati and then Pashtun, before Pakistani.
– p. 20
Foreigners call them suicide bridges but we loved them.
– p. 49
There are forty million of us Pashtuns, of which ten million live outside of our homeland.
– p. 51
Children sometimes froze to death in winter. There was no hospital.
– p. 51
‘No Pashtun leaves his land of his own sweet will…Either he leaves from poverty or he leaves for love.’
– p. 53
‘Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books… But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and flowers on a green hillside.’
– p. 59
Almost two million of them were killed trying to cross the new border.
– p. 75
‘You are free to go to your temples…your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state.’
– p. 75
Our area has always been more conservative than most of the rest of Pakistan.
– p. 79
The government promised they would all be looked after by the state, but that felt as empty as most government promises.
– p. 88
Farewell music! Ever your sweetest tunes are best kept silent/ The Taliban on the edge of the village have stilled all lips.
– p. 89
‘We are told that Swat is being sacrificed for the sake of Pakistan, but no one and nothing should be sacrificed for the state. A state is like a mother, and a mother never deserts or cheats her children.’
– p. 116
‘Swat has given us so much. In these tough days we must be strong for our valley.’
- p. 132
O Wayfarer! Rest your head on the stony cobblestone/
It is a foreign land – not the city of your kings!
- p. 155
It wasn’t the same Swat as before – maybe it never would be – but it was returning to normal.
- p. 166
He would probably say that this was not the country he had wanted. He wished us to be independent, to be tolerant, to be kind to each other. He wanted everyone to be free whatever their beliefs.
- p. 187
Our country is full of shocking statistics, not just on education, and one of them is that one in seven children in Pakistan gets hepatitis, largely because of dirty needles, and many die of liver disease.
- p. 218
I am a patriot and I love my country/
And for that I would gladly sacrifice all.
- p. 229
If the men cannot win the battle, O my country,
Then the women will come forth and win you an honour.
I wanted to change it to:
Whether the men are winning or losing the battle, O my country,
The women are coming and the women will win you an honour.
- p. 250
Taliban quotes
…the Taliban had never come for a girl and I was more concerned they would target my father…
– p. 4
Take care, you’ll be next.
– p. 4
Maybe I’d take off my shoes and hit him, but then I’d think if I did that there would be no difference between me and a terrorist.
– p. 4
‘Who is Malala?’ he demanded.
– p. 6
Rather I receive your bullet-riddles body with honour
Than news of your cowardice on the battlefield
– p. 7
‘A war between two elephants’…’like the grass crushed by the hooves of two fierce beasts.’
– p. 27
…the Holy Quran clearly says it is wrong to kill.
– p. 70
He said they had told him, ‘Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,’ and had threatened to ‘bomb us back to the Stone Age’ if we stood against them.
– p. 70-71
Some 12,000 young men from Swat went to help the Taliban. Many never came back.
– p. 71
Farewell music! Ever your sweetest tunes are best kept silent
The Taliban on the edge of the village have stilled all lips.
– p. 89
I was ten when the Taliban came to our valley.
– p. 91
They wore black badges which said… ‘sharia law or martyrdom’
– p. 91
In the beginning Fazlullah was very wise.
– p. 92
They warned people to stop listening to music, watching movies and dancing.
– p. 92
Mullahs often misinterpret the Quran and Hadith when they teach them in our country as few people understand the original Arabic. Fazlullah exploited this ignorance.
– p. 92
‘…this so-called scholar is spreading ignorance.’
– p. 94
‘This is how these militants work. They want to win the hearts and minds of the people so first see what the local problems are and target those responsible, and that way they get the support of the silent majority… After, when they get power, they behave like the criminals they once hunted down.’
– p. 94
‘On this Eid two-legged animals will be sacrificed.’
– p. 99
The authorities turned a blind eye.
- p. 100
‘Life isn’t just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide. You can stay there accepting everything from the Taliban or you can make a stand against them.’
- p. 100
We felt like the Taliban saw us as little dolls to control, telling us what to do and how to dress. I thought if God wanted us to be like that He wouldn’t have made us all different.
- p. 103
When it suits the Taliban, women can be vocal and visible.
- p. 105
Attiya used to tease me by saying, ‘Taliban is good, army not good.’ I replied, ‘If there is a snake and a lion coming to attack us what would we say is good, the snake or the lion?’
- p. 114
The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.
- p. 122
Manual workers made a great contribution to our society but received no recognition, and this is the reason so many of them joined the Taliban – to finally achieve status and power.
- p. 124
We say in Arabic, ‘People follow their king.’ When the highest authority in your district joins the Taliban, then Talibanisation becomes normal.
- p. 126
‘Malala is a child,’ they would say, ‘and even the Taliban don’t kill children.’
- p. 136
A talib accosted them and blocked their way. ‘If I see you again wearing a scarf but no burqa I will beat you,’ he said.
- p.142
‘There cannot be two swords in one sheath,’ said one of my father’s friends. ‘There cannot be two kings in one land. Who is in charge here – the government of Fazlullah?’
- p. 143
Now we were being driven out for a third reason the tapa writer had never imagined – The Taliban.
- p. 147
…the army was seemingly unaware of the Taliban’s presence.
- p. 150
All of us girls made it clear that we wanted to see the Taliban brought to justice, but we weren’t convinced this would happen.
- p. 163
The women said the missing men had not collaborated with the Taliban; maybe they had given them a glass of water or some bread when they’d been ordered to do so. Yet these innocent men were being held while the Taliban leaders went free.
- p. 172
The director of the CIA said Pakistan was ‘either involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be.’
- p. 177
My feeling was that nobody can stop death; it doesn’t matter if it comes from a talib or cancer. So I should do whatever I want to do.
- p. 188
‘The army says there is peace,’ said my father. ‘So why do we need flag marches and night patrols?’
- p. 193
‘The Taliban is not an organized force like we imagine… It’s a mentality, and this mentality is everywhere in Pakistan.’
- p. 194
I didn’t see the two young men step out into the road and bring the van to a sudden halt. I didn’t get the chance to answer their question, ‘Who is Malala?’ or I would have explained to them why they should let us girls go to school as well as their own sisters and daughters.
- p. 203
‘They wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Kill Malala and silence me for ever.’
- p. 208
‘Anyone who sides with the government against us will die at our hands.’
- p. 217
I felt nothing, maybe just a bit satisfied. ‘So they did it.’ My only regret was that I hadn’t had a chance to speak to them before they shot me. Now they’d never hear what I had to say.
- p. 237
When people talk about the way I was shot and what happened I think it’s the story of Malala, ‘a girl shot by the Taliban’; I don’t feel it’s a story about me at all.
- p. 255
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.
- p. 261
…I thought, Who is this man to say that? The Taliban are not our rulers. It’s my life, how I live is my choice.
- p. 263
Education quotes
In Malalai we Pashtuns have our very own Joan of Arc.
– p. 10
Jinnah said, ‘No struggle can ever succeed without women participating alongside men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.’
– p. 24
A famous poem was written at that time by Rahmat Shah Sayel, the same Peshawar poet who wrote the poem about my namesake…
– p. 27
‘It’s not that passing books on is bad practice,’ he says. ‘It’s just I so wanted a new book, unmarked by another student and bought with my father’s money.’
– p. 29-30
…though Baba was a difficult man he gave him the most important gift – the gift of education.
– p. 30
Baba also gave him a deep love of learning and knowledge as well as keen awareness of people’s rights, which my father has passed on to me.
– p. 30
She was the only girl in a class of boys.
– p. 32
There seemed no point in going to school just to end up cooking, cleaning and bringing up children, so one day she sold her books for nine annas, spent the money on boiled sweets and never went back.
– p. 32
Education had been a great gift for him.
– p. 33
Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people…
– p. 33
He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls.
– p. 34
‘They are dirty, black and stupid,’ people would say. ‘Let them be illiterate.’
– p. 34
He wanted to encourage independent thought…
– p. 37
They named it the Khushal School after one of my father’s great heroes, Khushal Khan Khattack…who tried to unify all Pashtun tribes…
– p. 39
‘We are committed to build for you the call of the new era.’
– p. 39
‘I girt my sword in the name of Afghan honour.’
– p. 39
…with pens, not swords…we needed to unite against ignorance.
– p. 40
‘Running a school is not a crime.’
– p. 41
…women in our area don’t vote.
– p. 52
I read my books…and trusted in my father’s words: ‘Malala is as free as a bird.’
– p. 55
My father used to say, ‘I will protect your freedom, Malala. Carry on with your dreams.’
– p. 55
‘Malala is a genius girl,’ my class fellows would say.
– p. 56
Her mother was a teacher at a different school, which was unusual as none of our mothers worked.
– p. 56
‘Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books… But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and flowers on a green hillside.’
– p. 59
‘Teach him it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat.’
– p. 59
‘I have four brothers, and if I do even the slightest thing wrong they can stop me going to school.’
– p. 63
I started writing my own speeches and changing the way I delivered them, from my heart rather than from a sheet of paper.
– p. 64
Though my mother was not educated, she was the practical one in the family, the doer while my father was the talker.
– p. 66
‘Is education not the right of these children?’
– p. 68
‘Son, may you be the star in the sky of knowledge,’ he used to say.
– p. 69
…the Holy Quran clearly says it is wrong to kill.
– p. 70
From an early age I was interested in politics and sat on my father’s knee listening to everything he and his friends discussed.
– p. 72
“A mullah who is not fully learned is a danger to faith.”
– p. 75
‘I am representing good Muslims and we all think your girls’ school is haram and a blasphemy. You should close it. Girls should not be going to school.’
– p. 77
‘A girl is so sacred she should be in purdah…no lady’s name in the Quran as God doesn’t want her to be named.’
– p. 77
My father was worried. He and his fellow activists were holding endless meetings. These were no longer just about stopping people cutting down trees but were also about education and democracy.
– p. 81
In our valley we receive most of our information from the radio because so many had no TV or are illiterate.
– p. 92
Mullahs often misinterpret the Quran and Hadith when they teach them in our country as few people understand the original Arabic. Fazlullah exploited this ignorance.
– p. 92
‘…this so-called scholar is spreading ignorance.’
– p. 94
I was confused by Fazlullah’s words. In the Holy Quran it is not written that men should go outside and women should work all day in the home.
– p. 95
‘I agree that female teachers should educate girls,’ he said. ‘But first we need to educate our girls so they can become teachers!’
– p. 97
Girls like me who still went to school, he called buffaloes and sheep.
– p. 97
‘Why don’t they want girls to go to school?’ I asked my father.
‘They are scared of the pen,’ he replied.
– p. 97
His men stopped health workers giving polio drops, saying the vaccinations were an American plot to make Muslim women infertile so that the people of Swat would die out.
– p. 98
…she even boasted that she had trained many of her girls to become suicide bombers.
- p. 105
My father always said that the most beautiful thing in a village in the morning is the sight of a child in a school uniform, but now we were afraid to wear them.
- p. 112
…many local journalists were unhappy about what was happening to their valley and they gave us a powerful platform as we would say things they wouldn’t dare to.
- p. 118
Going to school, reading and doing our homework wasn’t just a way of passing time, it was our future.
- p. 122
The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.
- p. 122
The Quran says we should seek knowledge, study hard and learn the mysteries of our world.
- p. 129
Gul Makai uses the Holy Quran to teach her elders that war is bad and they eventually stop fighting and allow the lovers to unite.
- p. 130
…I began to see that the pen and the words that come and the words that come from it can be much more powerful than machine guns, tanks or helicopters. We were learning how to struggle.
- p. 131
…no date was announced for the start of next term.
– p. 134
When someone takes away your pens you realise quite how important education is.
- p. 134
I didn’t want to stop learning. I was only eleven years old but I felt as though I had lost everything.
- p. 135
But I said, ‘Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow.’ Education is neither Eastern nor Western, it is human.
- p. 136
‘The secret school is our silent protest,’ she told us.
– p. 139
Finally I would be able to return to school without fear.
- p. 158
‘I know the importance of education because my pens and books were taken from me by force… But the girls of Swat are not afraid of anyone. We have continued with our education.’
- p. 179
One day I will be a politician and do these things myself.
- p. 180
I wanted to start an education foundation. This had been on my mind ever since I’d seen the children working on the rubbish mountain.’
- p. 181
It’s wonderful going to school and not having to feel scared as I did in Mingora, always looking around me on my way to school, terrified a talib would jump out.
- p. 259
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.
- p. 261
Peace in every home, every street, every village, every country – this is my dream. Education for every boy and every girl in the world.
- p. 265
To sit down on a chair and read my books with all my friends at school is my right. To see each and every human being with a smile of happiness is my wish.
- p. 265
Feminist quotes
In our culture, every man is your ‘brother’ and every woman your ‘sister’.
– p. 3
…the Taliban had never come for a girl and I was more concerned they would target my father…
– p. 4
When I was born, people in our village commiserated with my mother and nobody congratulated my father.
– p. 9
…daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children.
– p. 9
…family tree of our clan…going right back to my great-great grandfather and showing only the male line.
– p. 9
…asked friends to throw dried fruits, sweets and coins into my cradle, something we usually do for boys.
– p. 9
In Malalai we Pashtuns have our very own Joan of Arc.
– p. 10
O Malalai of Maiwand,
Rise once more to make Pashtuns understand the song of honour,
Your poetic words turn worlds around,
I beg you, rise again.
– p. 11
Before the troubles came, most people, like my mother, had never been outside Swat.
– p. 12
‘Malala swung in that cradle’, he said. ‘So can he’.
– p. 15
In our society marriages are usually arranged by families, but theirs was a love match.
– p. 16
My mother comes from a family of strong women as well as influential men.
– p. 17
Most Pashtun men never do this, as sharing problems with women is seen as weak.
– p. 17
…not in the mosque as that is only for the men.
– p. 17
While boys and men could roam freely about town, my mother and I could not go out without a male relative to accompany us, even if it was a five-year-old boy! This was the tradition.
– p. 20
I wondered how free a daughter could ever be.
– p. 20
As in most families, the girls stayed at home while the boys went to school. ‘They were just waiting to be married,’ says my father.
– p. 22
Jinnah said, ‘No struggle can ever succeed without women participating alongside men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.’
– p. 24
She was the only girl in a class of boys.
– p. 32
There seemed no point in going to school just to end up cooking, cleaning and bringing up children, so one day she sold her books for nine annas, spent the money on boiled sweets and never went back.
– p. 32
He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls.
– p. 34
It was unusual for women to have a special place to meet outside the home.
– p. 35
Benazir was our first female prime minister and the first in the Islamic world. Suddenly there was a lot of optimism about the future.
– p. 36
…women in our area don’t vote.
– p. 52
They thought I was modern because I came from town. They did not realise people from Islamabad or even Peshawar would think me very backward.
– p. 52
Our favourite game was ‘weddings’.
– p. 52
‘Marriage is a part of life,’ we said. ‘Be kind to your mother-in-law and father-in-law so they treat you well. Take care of your husband and be happy.’
– p. 53
None of the older women had any education but they all told stories and recited what we call tapey…
– p. 53
Women in the village hid their faces whenever they left their purdah quarters and could not meet or speak to men who were not their close relatives.
– p. 54
One of my male cousins was angry and asked my father, ‘Why isn’t she covered?’ He replied, ‘She’s my daughter. Look after your own affairs.’
– p. 54
I am very proud to be a Pashtun but sometimes I think our code of conduct has a lot to answer for, particularly where the treatment of women is concerned.
– p. 54
We were told she had committed suicide, but we later discovered her own family had poisoned her.
– p. 54
Why should a girl’s life be ruined to settle a dispute she had nothing to do with?
– p. 55
I read my books…and trusted in my father’s words: ‘Malala is as free as a bird.’
– p. 55
Her mother was a teacher at a different school, which was unusual as none of our mothers worked.
– p. 56
It was a girl about my age. Her hair was matted and her skin was covered in sores.
– p. 65-66
Though my mother was not educated, she was the practical one in the family, the doer while my father was the talker.
– p. 66
Khalida had been sold into marriage to an old man who used to beat her…she ran away… Her own family would not take her back because it is believed that a woman who has left her husband has brought shame on her family.
– p. 67
‘I am representing good Muslims and we all think your girls’ school is haram and a blasphemy. You should close it. Girls should not be going to school.’
– p. 77
‘A girl is so sacred she should be in purdah…no lady’s name in the Quran as God doesn’t want her to be named.’
– p. 77
It was as though they wanted to remove all traces of womankind from public life.
– p. 80
‘Women are meant to fulfill their responsibilities in the home. Only in emergencies can they go outside, but then they must wear the veil.’
– p. 95
I was confused by Fazlullah’s words. In the Holy Quran it is not written that men should go outside and women should work all day in the home.
– p. 95
Our men think earning money and ordering around others is where power lies. They don’t think power is in the hands of the woman who takes care of everyone all day long, and gives birth to their children.
– p. 95
‘Pekai, purdah is not only in the veil, purdah is in the heart.’
– p. 96
‘I agree that female teachers should educate girls,’ he said. ‘But first we need to educate our girls so they can become teachers!’
– p. 97
Girls like me who still went to school, he called buffaloes and sheep.
– p. 97
‘Why don’t they want girls to go to school?’ I asked my father.
‘They are scared of the pen,’ he replied.
– p. 97
My mother always told me, ‘Hide your face – people are looking at you.’
I would reply, ‘It doesn’t matter; I’m also looking at them.’
– p. 97
Girls were not supposed to be seen outside.
- p. 102
We felt like the Taliban saw us as little dolls to control, telling us what to do and how to dress. I thought if God wanted us to be like that He wouldn’t have made us all different.
- p. 103
When it suits the Taliban, women can be vocal and visible.
- p. 105
…she even boasted that she had trained many of her girls to become suicide bombers.
- p. 105
‘If Benazir can die, nobody is safe.’
- p. 111
‘We are told that Swat is being sacrificed for the sake of Pakistan, but no one and nothing should be sacrificed for the state. A state is like a mother, and a mother never deserts or cheats her children.’
– p. 116
If one man, Fazlullah, can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?
- p. 117
Gul Makai uses the Holy Quran to teach her elders that war is bad and they eventually stop fighting and allow the lovers to unite.
- p. 130
When you’re very young, you love the burqa because it’s great for dressing up. But when you are made to wear it, that’s a different matter.
- p. 131
‘Malala is a child,’ they would say, ‘and even the Taliban don’t kill children.’
- p. 136
A talib accosted them and blocked their way. ‘If I see you again wearing a scarf but no burqa I will beat you,’ he said.
- p.142
‘She came out of her house with a man who was not her husband so we had to punish her,’ he said. ‘Some boundaries cannot be crossed.’
- p.143
Everyone seemed to have seen the video of the girl in the black burqa being flogged and were asking, ‘Is this what we want in Pakistan?’
- p. 146
I always knew my mother was a strong woman but I looked at her with new respect.
- p. 151
I stopped wearing my shawl over my head in some of the meetings, thinking I had become a modern girl. Later I realized that simply having your head uncovered isn’t what makes you modern.
- p. 162
All of us girls made it clear that we wanted to see the Taliban brought to justice, but we weren’t convinced this would happen.
- p. 163
The women said the missing men had not collaborated with the Taliban; maybe they had given them a glass of water or some bread when they’d been ordered to do so. Yet these innocent men were being held while the Taliban leaders went free.
- p. 172
‘I know the importance of education because my pens and books were taken from me by force… But the girls of Swat are not afraid of anyone. We have continued with our education.’
- p. 179
One day I will be a politician and do these things myself.
- p. 180
I wanted to start an education foundation. This had been on my mind ever since I’d seen the children working on the rubbish mountain.’
- p. 181
…she had been living in the seaside city of Karachi for thirty years and yet had never actually laid eyes on the ocean.
- p. 183
I didn’t see the two young men step out into the road and bring the van to a sudden halt. I didn’t get the chance to answer their question, ‘Who is Malala?’ or I would have explained to them why they should let us girls go to school as well as their own sisters and daughters.
- p. 203
‘My daughter, you are my brave daughter, my beautiful daughter.’
- p. 208
All children are special to their parents, but to my father I was his universe. I had been his comrade in arms for so long…
- p. 208
He normally liked singing along, but a patriotic song hardly seemed appropriate when here was a fifteen-year-old girl shot in the head, an almost dead daughter.
- p. 210
He felt all these people were just waiting for me to die when they had done nothing to protect me.
- p. 214
‘Tell me how one can live without daughters,’ he sobbed.
- p. 219
A nice lady in a headscarf held my hand and said, ‘Assalamu alaikum,’ which is our traditional Muslim greeting.
- p. 231
I felt nothing, maybe just a bit satisfied. ‘So they did it.’ My only regret was that I hadn’t had a chance to speak to them before they shot me. Now they’d never hear what I had to say.
- p. 237
One of the first movies they got me was Bend It Like Beckham, thinking the story of a Sikh girl challenging her cultural norms and playing football would appeal to me.
- p. 242
If the men cannot win the battle, O my country,
Then the women will come forth and win you an honour.
I wanted to change it to:
Whether the men are winning or losing the battle, O my country,
The women are coming and the women will win you an honour.
- p. 250
When people talk about the way I was shot and what happened I think it’s the story of Malala, ‘a girl shot by the Taliban’; I don’t feel it’s a story about me at all.
- p. 255
Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid – if you are afraid you can’t move forward.
- p. 261
…I thought, Who is this man to say that? The Taliban are not our rulers. It’s my life, how I live is my choice.
- p. 263
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.
- p. 261
Peace in every home, every street, every village, every country – this is my dream. Education for every boy and every girl in the world.
- p. 265
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