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Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. Little, Brown and Company, 2013.

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A crucial part of the story is the fact that Malala is considered 'different' by many people surrounding her. Malala receives backlash from her family because she wants to have a different life than she's traditionally supposed to.
Quote 1
"My cousins made fun of me for my city ways. I did not like going barefoot. I read books and I had a different accent and used slang expressions from Mingora. My clothes were often from shops and not homemade like theirs. My relatives would ask, 'Would you like to cook chicken for us?' and I'd say, 'No, the chicken is innocent. We should not kill her.'" (64)

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When Malala shows interest in politics, she is continuously discouraged and told she shouldn't try to make a change.
Quote 2
"I told my friends at school about the rubbish-dump children and that we should help. Not everyone wanted to, as they said the children were dirty and probably diseased, and their parents would not like them going to school with children like that. They also said it wasn't up to us to sort out the problem. I didn't agree." (88)

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After Sufi Mohammed's claim that women shouldn't have an education, many girls stopped going to school. Male teachers also refused to teach women. Along with her friends, Malala made the decision to fight back and continue going to school.
Quote 3
"Girls like me who still went to school he called buffaloes and sheep." (118)

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After a suicide attack at a high school, Malala goes on Geo News to do an interview. She was encouraged by her father, who organized peace protests and motivated others to speak up and share their stories about the Taliban. Malala goes on to do more interviews, gaining support from others.

Quote 4
"The more interviews I gave, the stronger I felt and the more support we received. I was only eleven, but I looked older , and the media seemed to like hearing from a young girl."

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With a new government and more suicide bombings, Malala's life starts to change even more. She had to learn to live with many cousins who moved into her house. She was no longer able to play games outside, it was only considered safe to play marbles in the yard.

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When a teacher is murdered, Malala is given another chance to share her feelings on national television. She bravely calls out the Taliban for abusing their religion, and demands they be held accountable. She also shows support for her father on his efforts to call out the Taliban.

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Malala's father speaking out more often leads to him and other people Malala is close to getting threatened. He moves into his friends house to protect his family, and back at home Malala and the rest of the family take precautions. Malala, her siblings, and her mother brainstorms plans for if the Taliban comes.

Quote 5
"My mother was always trying to think up plans for what she would do if the Taliban came. She thought of sleeping with a knife under her pillow. I said I could sneak into the toilet and call the police. My brothers and I thought of digging a tunnel." (150)

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Malala recieves the opportunity to write a diary about her life. She's enthusiastic about standing up for the right to be educated.

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"Hers was the voice which made us consider that indeed, there can be alternatives, and there can be resistance to all forms of tyranny. Today, the attempt to silence that voice shall only make her stronger; the blood stains on her school uniform shall only feed the conviction that as long as there is breath and life, there shall be struggle."

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Malala Yousafzai: Portrait of the girl blogger

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"Hers was the voice which made us consider that indeed, there can be alternatives, and there can be resistance to all forms of tyranny. Today, the attempt to silence that voice shall only make her stronger; the blood stains on her school uniform shall only feed the conviction that as long as there is breath and life, there shall be struggle."

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During winter vacation, Malala's school is officially closed by the Taliban. She goes on many radio and tv channels and says she won't let this stop her from learning.

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Malala starts pretending she is younger in order to go to school again. It wasn't difficult because they lifted the education ban for people up to year 4, and she was in year 5. However, it was still risky.

Quote 6
"I was in Year 5 and some of us pretended we were younger than we were. We started going to school again, dressed in ordinary clothes and hiding our books under our shawls." (166)

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In this recent article, Malala talks about how it will be hard for the Taliban to maintain a ban on girls education in Afghanistan. She talks about how things aren't the same as they were when she was younger, and people are much more empowered now.

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Yousafzai, who survived a Pakistani Taliban assassination attempt when she was 15, said girls' schooling should be a condition of diplomatic recognition for the Taliban [Ammar Abd Rabbo/AFP]

The Taliban's ban on girls' education will not last forever, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has said, emphasising that Afghan women now know what it is to be "empowered".

The armed group, now ruling Afghanistan, closed girls' secondary schools just hours after reopening them this week, prompting a small protest by women and girls in the capital Kabul.

"I think it was much easier for the Taliban [to enforce] a ban on girls' education back in 1996," Yousafzai, who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for all children's right to education, told the Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday.

"It is much harder this time - that is because women have seen what it means to be educated, what it means to be empowered. This time is going to be much harder for the Taliban to maintain the ban on girls' education. This ban will not last forever."

The Taliban stopped girls from attending school during its rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when it was removed by the US-led invasion.

It returned to power as US forces withdrew in August last year. The United States said on Friday it had cancelled planned talks in Doha with the Taliban after the schools were shut this week.

"On Tuesday, we joined millions of Afghan families in expressing our deep disappointment with the Taliban's decision to not allow women and girls to return to secondary school," a State Department spokesperson said on Friday.

"We have cancelled some of our engagements, including planned meetings in Doha [Qatar's capital] around the Doha Forum, and made clear that we see this decision as a potential turning point in our engagement."

On Saturday, US special envoy Thomas West said he expects the Taliban to reverse its decision "in coming days".

Yousafzai, who survived a Pakistani Taliban assassination attempt when she was 15, said girls' schooling should be a condition of diplomatic recognition for the Taliban.

"They shouldn't be recognised if they didn't recognise the human rights of women and girls," she said.

'Open the schools!'

On Saturday, more than two dozen girls and women staged protests in front of the Ministry of Education in the capital Kabul.

The decision, which the Taliban has yet to explain, meant girls above the sixth grade will not be able to attend school.

"Open the schools! Justice, justice!" chanted protesters on Saturday, some carrying schoolbooks as they gathered at a city square in Kabul.

They held banners that said "Education is our fundamental right, not a political plan", as they marched for a short distance and later dispersed as Taliban fighters arrived at the scene.

Fawzia Koofi, former chairperson of the Afghanistan's Women, Civil Society and Human Rights Commission, told the forum: "It's basically a genocide of a generation."

"How could anyone in this world in the 21st century... ban girls from education? I don't think the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world, should accept," she said.

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Taliban girls' education ban won't last, says Malala

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The Taliban's ban on girls' education will not last forever, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has said, emphasising that Afghan women now know what it is to be "empowered". The armed group, now ruling Afghanistan, closed girls' secondary schools just hours after reopening them this week, prompting a small protest by women and girls in the capital Kabul.

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On may 5th 2009, Malala and her family leave their home and go to Shangla Pakistan. They become internally displaced persons.

Quote 7
"On 5 May 2009 we became IDPs." (177)

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After the Taliban is cleared out, school starts again and Malala is reunited with her old friends. They share stories about their time as IDPs .

Quote 8
"I was overjoyed to see all my old friends. We had so many stories from our time as IDPs." (193)

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Malala and her community suffer severely after a flood. She talks about not having clean water or electricity, and how scarce and expensive food was. It also comes to light that the Taliban never really left when two schools are blown up.

Quote 9
"Even when the rains finally ceased life was still very difficult. We had no clean water and no electricity." (203)

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Malala is nominated for the international peace prize of KidsRights which is a childrens advocacy group. She didn't win, but she isn't upset about it because she knows all she did was speak up compared to other nominees who had actual organizations.

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Malala wins Pakistan's first ever National Peace Prize. The prize ended up being named 'The Malala Prize' and annually given to people under 18.

Quote 10
"It was decided that the prize should be named the Malala Prize in my honor." (215)

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A Symbol of Hope: Malala Yousafzai Wins Nobel Peace Prize | The Takeaway | WNYC Studios

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The 17-year-old is now the youngest winner of the prestigious award, which will be shared with Indian human rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.

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One day, Malala is on a bus with her friends and gets shot by the Taliban. She was put into an induced coma and there were many signs of her dying.

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Nine years after she was shot by the Taliban, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai watched in horror as the terrorist group seized power in Afghanistan. "I watched as province after province fell to men with guns, loaded with bullets like the one that shot me," the 24-year-old said in a post published on Podium, once again emphasising on the need to draw global attention to the plight of civilians in the country.

In 2012, Malala was shot in the head by Taliban terrorists in Pakistan for her campaign for the education of girls. "In October 2012, a member of the Pakistani Taliban boarded my school bus and shot one bullet into my left temple. The bullet grazed my left eye, skull and brain - lacerating my facial nerve, shattering my eardrum and breaking my jaw joints," she recalled in her post.

The rights activist described the aftermath of the incident - although her own memories of the day she was shot are non-existent. In her post, she spoke about the scars - both physical and emotional - that she and her friends who witnessed the shooting still carry. "On my back, I still carry the scar where doctors removed the bullet from my body," she wrote.

A few days ago, Malala called her best friend, who had been sitting next to her on the bus the day she was shot. With no memories of the day herself, Malala wanted to know what had happened nine years ago on the day she was shot.

"Did I scream? Did I try to run away?" she asked her friend.

"No," her friend responded. "You stood still and silent, staring into the face of the Talib as he called out your name. You held my hand so tightly that I felt the pain for days."

According to her friend's account, Malala, who was only 15 at the time, covered her face with her hands and tried to bend down before she collapsed. "You covered your face with your hands and tried to bend down. A second later, you fell into my lap," she was told.

She herself has no memories of the day, but her friend still has nightmares. "My body has scars from one bullet and many surgeries, but I have no memory of that day. Nine years later, my best friend still has nightmares," Malala said in her blog post.

After the shooting, emergency surgeons in Peshawar removed her left temporal skull bone to create space for her brain to swell. Their quick action saved her life, but soon her organs began to fail. She was airlifted first to the capital of Islamabad and then to the UK for further treatment.

"When I opened my eyes, I was relieved to realise I was alive. But I didn't know where I was or why I was surrounded by strangers speaking English," Malala recalled.

She started writing things down in a notebook to communicate with hospital staff as she battled severe head pain and blurry vision. When she asked a nurse for a mirror, Malala could only recognise half her face - the other half had no movement at all.

"Half of my hair had been shaved off. I thought the Taliban had done this to me too, but the nurse said the doctors shaved it for surgery," she said.

When she touched her abdomen, Malala felt something hard and stiff. She was told that when surgeons in Pakistan removed part of her skull bone, they relocated it to her stomach and that one day, she would have another surgery to put it back.

Doctors in the UK eventually decided to fit a titanium plate where her skull bone had been in order to reduce the risk of infection. Today, the skull bone fragment sits on Malala's bookshelf.

In her piece, Malala opened up about the long process of recovery, revealing that US troops withdrew from Afghanistan two weeks ago, she was undergoing her sixth surgery "to repair the Taliban's damage to my body".

"On August 9 in Boston, I woke up at 5:00 am to go to the hospital for my latest surgery and saw the news that the Taliban had taken Kunduz, the first major city to fall in Afghanistan," she wrote.

Over the next few days, Malala wrote letters to heads of state around the world, made several phone calls and spoke with women's rights activists still in Afghanistan. She was able to help many of them get to a safe place. "But I know we can't save everyone," she said, adding that her heart went out to those who will not receive any help in the crisis. "My heart breaks for those whose names we will forget or never even know, whose cries for help will go unanswered," she said.

Malala also acknowledged the huge role that media attention played in her case. "When the Taliban shot me, journalists in Pakistan and a few international media outlets already knew my name," she said, pointing out that her case could have played out very differently without the support she received from people across the world.

"Without the crowds of people holding 'I am Malala' signs, without thousands of letters and offers of support, prayers and news stories, I might not have received medical care," she said.

"Nine years later, I am still recovering from just one bullet. The people of Afghanistan have taken millions of bullets over the last four decades," Malala added.

Under the hardline version of sharia law that the Taliban imposed when they controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s, women and girls were mostly denied education and employment, reports news agency AFP. Just last week, Malala had expressed concerns about the safety of women, minorities and human rights advocates under the Taliban.

Click for more trending news

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Malala Lost Part Of Her Skull To Taliban Bullets. 9 Years Later, She Still Has It At Home

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Nine years after she was shot by the Taliban, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai watched in horror as the terrorist group seized power in Afghanistan. "I watched as province after province fell to men with guns, loaded with bullets like the one that shot me," the 24-year-old said in a post published on Podium, once again emphasising on the need to draw global attention to the plight of civilians in the country.

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Malala is in such bad condition that she has to see multiple doctors. She was recommended to many different specialists, and taken to different hospitals.

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Under an armed escort, Malala is flown out of pakistan for the first time to a hospital in the UK that could treat her more safely.

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Malala has an operation on her face to avoid her being paralyzed for the rest of her life. She slowly gets back to her normal life, being able to read and smile again like she used to before her injury.

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Malala is finally released from the hospital and is able to live with her family again.

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The Pakistani schoolgirl activist shot in the head by the Taliban has been discharged from a Birmingham hospital as an inpatient.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was being treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEHB) after being transferred following the attack in October.

She will continue rehabilitation at her family's temporary West Midlands home.

The Taliban said it shot Malala, a campaigner for girls' education, for "promoting secularism".

The shooting, in a school bus, sparked domestic and international outrage.

'Strong young woman'

Malala was returning home from school in the north-western Swat district on 9 October when gunmen stopped her vehicle and shot her in the head and the chest.

She received immediate treatment in Pakistan where surgeons removed a bullet which entered just above her left eye and ran along her jaw, grazing her brain.

The teenager was then flown to the UK and was admitted to the QEHB on 15 October to receive specialist treatment.

Over the past few weeks, Malala has been leaving the hospital on home visits to spend time with her father Ziauddin, mother Toorpekai and younger brothers, Khushal and Atul.

The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said doctors believe she will continue to make good progress outside the hospital.

The schoolgirl is due to undergo cranial reconstruction surgery in late January or early February.

Dr Dave Rosser, the trust's medical director, said: "Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery.

"Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers.

"She will return to the hospital as an outpatient and our therapies team will continue to work with her at home to supervise her care."

Peace award

Since the shooting, Malala and her father have had threats made against their lives by the Taliban.

Foreign Secretary William Hague tweeted: "Delighted #Malala is well enough to leave hospital.

"The future Pakistan she dreams of is one we must support."

Malala came to prominence when, as an 11-year-old, she wrote a diary for BBC Urdu, giving an account of how her school in Mingora town dealt with the Taliban's 2009 edict to close girls' schools.

Her love for education, and her courage in standing up to the Taliban, made her an icon of bravery and earned her a national peace award in 2011.

The president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, visited Malala at the hospital on 8 December and assured the family his government would meet the expenses of the treatment.

On Wednesday, the Pakistan government announced that Malala's father had been given a job in Birmingham.

Mr Yousafzai has been appointed education attache at the Consulate of Pakistan for at least three years.

The family has received thousands of cards, gifts and messages of support from well-wishers since arriving in the UK.

In a statement in November, her father said the family "deeply feel the heart-touching good wishes of the people across the world of all castes, colour and creed".

He added: "I am awfully thankful to all the peace-loving well-wishers who strongly condemn the assassination attempt on Malala, who pray for her health, and support the grand cause of peace, education, freedom of thought and freedom of expression."

Tens of thousands of people have also signed a petition calling for Malala to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

West Midlands Police said it continued to work with the hospital and the family "to provide support and liaison as Malala recuperates from her injuries".

The force said it would be inappropriate to comment on the ongoing policing operation.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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Malala Yousafzai leaves Queen Elizabeth Hospital

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The Pakistani schoolgirl activist shot in the head by the Taliban has been discharged from a Birmingham hospital as an inpatient. Malala Yousafzai, 15, was being treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEHB) after being transferred following the attack in October. She will continue rehabilitation at her family's temporary West Midlands home.