Malala Yousafzai (ages 10-13)
By the time Malala was about 11 years of age, she was asked by Abdul Hai Kakar, to write a diary about about herself under the Taliban. Malala accepted, and as her diaries grew on, they started appearing on the BBC Urdu website. Because it could be dangerous if Malala used her real name in her site, Abdul hai Kakar suggested to use a pen name, Gul Makai. This named seemed to work well in keeping her secrets at first, but as time grew on, she knew that the Taliban and started to have their suspicions. Soon after Malala's diary was put on the BBC Urdu website, the Taliban started gaining control of the Pakistan government. For the Taliban, this included the confiscating of electronics from peoples homes and shutting down of girl's school. Malala and her village were very disappointed with these new restrictions and wanted things back to how they were before. Now that things were so out of hand with the Taliban, Malala had to flee her village. During those four months that she was gone she moved three times. Life was very hard for Malala at the time but she knew that leaving the village was the right thing to do because the Taliban became extremely dangerous. When Malala finally returned to her village of Mingora, practically every building was destroyed by the Taliban. many houses had been robbed. Even the school was used as one of the battlefields. But the Taliban were gone from their village, so it was safe to return. But many people weren't convinced. The school reopened again on August 1st and now practically everyone knew about Malala's diary. Some thought that her father had even wrote the diary but Malala's principal knew that she was not only a magnificent speaker, but a skilled writer. That summer one of Malala's friends invited 27 girls including Malala to spend a few days to visit the capitol and to take part in workshops. All of the girls were excited and couldn't wait to go. During the visit, the girls were allowed to ask questions about what the Pakistan rights were, and how they could improve on them. Malala asked seven questions and suggestions about her government (specifically about education) but the army general didn't take them to heart. A little while after the trip Malala contacted the army general and convinced him to do something about her concerns. Malala was given 1,100,000 rupees ($18,000 in U.S. dollars) by the army general. Malala gave her father the money so he could pay the school staff three months back pay. Everyone was ecstatic. It was around the time when Malala turned 13 that the rain came to her village. At first everyone was happy at the thought of the rain bringing good harvest but instead, the constant down pour started to flood many buildings including the school. Then bridges were washing away. Everyone tried to get to higher ground. Many people lost loved ones and homes which was very despairing. When the rains finally stopped times were still hard. Many foods were expensive and hard to find but the village was able to push through. Just as the town started to fall back in to place, the village noticed that not all problems were solved. They began to realize that the Taliban had never actually left their village and because of this, everyone was frustrated. Things got dangerous once again. And that wasn't all. The United States was beginning to have an effect on Pakistan. It all started when the U.S. found and killed Asama Bin Laden just a mile away from the Pakistan`s Military Academy. The Pakistani people were curious as to why they were never able to find Bin Laden but the real answer to their questions was right in front of them the whole time. Malala's first nomination was for the International peace prize of KidsRights. When Malala didn't win the prize her father was disappointed but more so proud of her for speaking out. This nomination was followed by many other nominations, prizes, and awards. Malala's mother was worried about her because she feared that Malala would turn into more of a target for the Taliban. Her father, however, just wanted her to keep pursuing her dreams of education and rights to Pakistan. Unfortunately when Malala started focusing so much on winning awards, it was harder to focus on her studies.She still did well in her school work but not as good as before. |
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