I Am Malala Research Paper

As Americans, we often don’t care enough to acknowledge the privilege we are given, education, healthcare, women’s rights, and poverty, which are still vastly more developed than in other countries, are taken for granted. “I am Malala” is an autobiographical narrative by Malala Yousafzai which gives the world first hand insight to education and changing culture in developing countries like never before. She writes in her book about her unusual upbringing in the middle east and how she has come to use her special circumstances to her advantage. Her progressive home environment coupled with her tenacious and passionate nature enabled her to bring her arguments about women’s rights and education to a worldwide limelight. Her story illustrated

Malala and her family’s beliefs are very progressive compared to the deeply rooted beliefs of the rest of her town. In the beginning of the book, it told of her birth. In Pakistan the birth of boys were celebrated, the birth of girls was a reason to be sad and wish condolences on the family. Malala’s birth was still celebrated by her family despite traditional values, she recalls in her book,” I’ve seen my name- in bright blue ink- right there among the male names of our family tree. Mine was the first female name in three hundred years.”(Yousafzai,pg.)This is also symbolic of a great change in traditions and beliefs in pakistan and the middle east. This adds to her belief in education and women’s rights which was revolutionary in of itself considering she’s a girl. The purpose of showing the changing times is to highlight the transition from traditional ways to the modern age, or the effort to transition. The Taliban symbolizes the reluctance to change, an extreme form of clinging to the past while Malala, her family, and her friends at school symbolize the shattering of oppression and road to progress. Religious variation is also connected to this transition, just how other religions sometimes transform to fit better in modern times, Malala also wants this transformation for Islam and developing countries. The Taliban in this case symbolize the outdated variation, where women are oppressed, and what is considered “haram”- or forbidden includes girls going to school, music, television, and anything with Western influences. Malala’s beliefs are almost opposite, she interprets Islam very differently, in her speech she even mentions,” ..Do you not know that the very first word of the Holy Quran is the word ‘Iqra’ which means ‘read’ “(Yousafzai,2014) which suggests she thinks that her religion,Islam, directly encourages education. She asks God for help