Page 62 - Education World July 2020

Books

Gut wrenching They had only been scat-

stories WE ARE DISPLACED: MY tered. Malala went back to
JOURNEY & STORIES FROM
speaking up for girls’ edu-
REFUGEE GIRLS AROUND THE
WORLD cation. She also built up
a media platform for that
Malala Yousafzai (with Liz Welch)
ISPLACEMENT — WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON cause, and began, in her
within and across young mind, to imagine a
Dcountries — of Rs.399 Pages 212+xi future for herself as a Paki-
large numbers of people, stani politician “speaking
owing to political instabil- up for girls’ education
ity or civil strife, is a fact it, the Islam the Taliban and peace”. That visibility
of contemporary life. UN wanted to enforce “was The human suffering was reason enough for the
statistics indicate that not our Islam”. Their of displacement and Taliban to strike back, and
nearly 70 million people radical fundamentalist the heroic way some she was targeted and shot.
or 9 percent of the world’s ideology “attacked our individuals overcome The next thing Malala
population are displaced daily way of life in the it gives humanity a knew, she woke up in a
at present, of whom more name of Islam… most of message of hope hospital bed in a foreign
than 25 million are clas- all, they tried to take away country, with doctors and
sified as refugees. The the rights of women.” machines working in tan-
human suffering such Soon after they gained relatives. This is where dem to keep her alive. But
displacement causes — influence, they declared Malala understood the her spirit did not break.
and the heroic way some that educating girls was true meaning of “internal The last chapter of her
affected individuals and un-Islamic. displacement”. She was in memoir Caught Between
groups overcome it to give When the Taliban is- her own country and with Two Worlds, describes her
humanity a message of sued a decree closing all her family, “and yet I still new life in Birmingham,
hope in a sea of gloom, girls’ schools and then felt so out of place”. At the England, wedged between
strife and pain — is usually began to bomb girls’ local school, “I spoke too “a deep longing for the
ignored. This volume is a schools in the Swat Valley, much and did not look warmth and sunshine of
corrective in that regard. 11-year-old Malala began down when the teacher (the old) home” and “feel-
Malala Yousafzai’s writing a blog for BBC entered the classroom. I ing as if we had landed on
personal story is well Urdu, and this helped get wasn’t being disrespectful; the moon — everything
known. But in addition to the story across to the out- I was just being myself, looked, smelled and felt
the narrative of her own side world. She also joined not shy in the classroom, different”. Malala soon re-
journey, she presents in her father in TV and radio but always polite. I asked alised that it was going to
this volume the stories of interviews, which forced questions, like all the be hard for her to go back
nine other young women a temporary truce to the boys, but was the last to be to Pakistan, but she recog-
from around the world, extent that the Taliban called on,” she recalls. nised also that the Taliban
recounted in their own lifted the ban for girls up When peace gradu- had failed in their mission.
words, to give us a more to class IV. ally returned to Malala’s “Instead of silencing me,
complete picture of suffer- That relief proved hometown, her family still they amplified my voice
ing and its sublimation. shortlived. When relations had to spend weeks in dis- beyond Pakistan.” People
To sum up Malala’s between the Taliban and placement before return- worldover wanted to sup-
story first, her father, government authorities ing home. In the process, port the cause for which
Ziauddin, ran two schools in Pakistan worsened, the Malala realised that “to she was passionately
in Mingora town of Swat latter, perhaps sensing be displaced, on top of fighting. The relentless
Valley in Pakistan, one that a war-like situation everything else, is to worry activism she had begun in
of which was for girls. It would soon prevail in the about being a burden Pakistan would continue
was from him that Malala Swat Valley and it would on others”. She says she from her new home.
first learnt of the Taliban, no longer be safe for civil- “knew, even as a 12-year- As part of that continu-
whom her father first ians, ordered evacuation old girl, that the home I ing activism, Malala brings
thought of as “more of an of the valley. Malala’s knew no longer existed together moving and in-
annoyance than a real ter- family had to move to except in my dreams”. spirational stories of nine
ror”. This viewpoint was another town, Shangla, It was to become obvi- other young women, and
soon changed by events. three days of uncertain ous soon that the Taliban their travels and travails
As Malala understood travel by road, to live with had not been destroyed. encompassing 16 countries

62 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2020