College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

Malala’s UN Speech

Dear brothers and sisters,

Do remember one thing. Malala Day is not my day. Today is
the day of every woman, every boy, and every girl who has
raised their voice for their rights. Thousands of people have
been killed by the terrorists, and millions have been injured. I
am just one of them.
So here I stand… one girl among many.
I speak not for my self, but for all girls and boys.
I raise up my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those
without a voice can be heard.
Those who have fought for their rights:
Their right to live in peace.
Their right to be treated with dignity.
 College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

Their right equality of opportunity.

Their right to be educated.
On the ninth of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the
left side of my forehead. They shot my friends, too. They
thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And
then, out of that silence came thousands of voices. The
terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop
our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this:
weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power, and
courage were born, I am the same. My dreams are the same.
One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change
the world.
 College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

Through reading the following Malala’s autobiography, I

Am Malala, please detail the background information
behind some lines in her UN speech, which enables the
audience to better understand her dream and pursuit.

You are required to present 3 pieces of background

information based on I Am Malala to make her UN speech
clearer and concrete.

e.g.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Those who have fought for their rights:
Their right to live in peace.
e.g. 1st background information:
Why does she demand the right to live in peace?
Because Taliban terrorists attacked and bombed her
hometown, Swat, killing and flogging innocent civilians.
Having suffered from the pains from war, Malala advocates
the right to live in peace.
 College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

I Am Malala (Excerpt)
Even when I was only seven or eight, I was considered a
sophisticated city girl, and sometimes my cousins teased me
because I didn’t like to go barefoot and I wore clothes bought
at the bazaar, not homemade like theirs. I had a city accent
and spoke city slang, so they thought I was modern. If only
they knew. People from real cities like Peshawar or Islamabad
would have thought me very backward.

When I was in the village, though, I lived the life of a country

girl. In the morning, I got up when the rooster crowed or when
I heard the clatter of dished as the women downstairs made
breakfast for the men. Then all the children spilled out of the
houses to greet the day. We ate honey straight from the hive
and green plums sprinkled with salt. None of us had any toys
or books, so we played hopscotch and cricket.

But life for the women in the mountains was not easy. There
were no proper shops, no universities, no hospitals or female
doctors, no clean water or electricity from the government.
Many of the men had left the villages to work on road crews
and in mines far, far away, sending money home when they
could. Sometimes the men never made it back.

The women of the village also had to hide their faces

whenever they left their homes. And they could not meet or
speak to men who were not their close relatives. None of them
could read. Even my own mother, who’d grown up in the
village, couldn’t read. It is not at all uncommon for women in
my country to be illiterate, but to see my mother, a proud and
intelligent woman, struggle to read the prices in the bazaar
was an unspoken sadness for both of us, I think.
 College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

Many of the girls in the village – including most of my own

cousins – didn’t go to school. Some fathers don’t even think
of their daughters as valued members of their families because
they’ll be married off at a young age to live with their
husband’s family. “Why send a daughter to a school?” the
men often say. “She doesn’t need an education to run a
house.”

I would never talk back to my elders. In my culture, one must

never disrespect one’s elders – even if they are wrong.

But when I saw how hard these women’s lives were, I was
confused and sad. Why were women treated so poorly in our
country?

I asked my father this, and he told me that life was even worse
for women in Afghanistan, where a group called the Taliban
had taken over the country. Schools for girls had been burned
to the ground, and all women were forced to wear a severe
form of burqa, a head-to-toe veil that was only open for their
eyes. Women were banned from laughing out loud or wearing
nail polish, and they were beaten or jailed for walking without
a male family member.

I shuddered when he told me such things and thanked God

that I lived in Pakistan, where a girl was free to go to school.

I was at the home of one of my relatives one evening when I

heard a strange sobbing coming form the radio.
 College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

After a long day of cooking, the women had gathered around

the radio as they cleaned up. As usual, I was doing my best to
get out of having to do the dishes, but I stopped at the sound
of this odd weeping.

At first, it sounded like just another imam (a Muslim religious

leader) giving advice about how to live a virtuous life. Quit
smoking, he told the men. And pray daily. The women
murmured in approval, my mother among them.

Then he began to cry. Stop listening to music, he begged. Stop

going to movies. Stop dancing. Stop, he begged, or God will
send another earthquake to punish us all. Some of the women
began to cry. Terrifying memories of the earthquake the
previous year were fresh in their minds; some of them had
buried children and husbands and were still grieving.

I knew what this radio mullah (a Muslim teacher of religion)

was saying wasn’t true. An earthquake is a geological event
that can be explained by science, I wanted to tell them. But
these women, many of whom had no education and who were
brought up to follow the orders of their religious leaders, were
frightened. As the mullah cried, so did they.

But beyond the walls of our school, Mingora had become like
a prison.

Banners that read WOMEN NOT ALLOWED were strung up

at the entrance to the market. All music and electronics shops
were shut down. Fazlullah even outlawed an old-fashioned
children’s game, where we threw disks cross a wooden board.
 College English II Unit 5 Reading Material by Michele Zhou

He had started announcing the names of schoolgirls on his

radio show. “Miss So-and-so has stopped going to school and
will go to heaven,” he said. Or, “Miss So-and-so has left
school, and I congratulate her parents.” My mother now
insisted that I never walk to school by myself, for fear that I
would be seen alone in my school uniform by the Taliban.

Everyday, I noticed that a few more of our classmates were

missing. And every night on his radio show, Fazlullah kept up
his attacks, saying that girls who went to school were not
good Muslims – that we would go to hell.

One day one of our teachers went to my father and said he

would no longer teach girls. Another said he was leaving to
help Fazlullah build a religious centre. It was a dark day. The
School, which had always been our refuge, had fallen under
the shadow of Fazlullah.

Fazlullah had set up a public court to enforce his orders, and

his men were now flogging or killing policemen, government
officials, and other men and women who disobeyed him.
Hundreds gathered to watch the floggings, shouting “Allahu
akbar” – God is great! – with each lash.

I shuddered to hear those stories. What was becoming of my

city? What would become of us?