I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. “The Taliban” is the umbrella term for the armed military organization that emerged in the 1990s, currently operating at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For the majority of the 2000s, the Taliban has been in the news. What is this group best known for and what are their core beliefs? What is the relationship between the Taliban in Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Teaching Suggestion: With this prompt, take the opportunity to allow students to share what they already know about the Taliban’s control in the Middle East. Simultaneously, you should also acknowledge how complex the topic of power is in this region, and how a brief discussion on the Taliban barely scratches the surface of the full scope of the issue. Yet a general understanding of the Taliban’s power in the Middle East approaches how Malala’s narrative becomes a story of the Individual Versus Society controlled by the Taliban.

• The BBC’s “Who are the Taliban?” gives a general overview of the Taliban’s rise to power in the Middle East, particularly their role in Afghanistan.
• AP’s “What’s Behind the Pakistani Taliban’s Insurgency?” gives an assessment of the Taliban’s current presence in Pakistan, as of January 2023. 

2. What is your understanding of Pakistan’s culture? Are your assumptions about places in the Middle East built from information that comes from Middle Eastern cultures, or are you primarily getting that information from Western perspectives? How might engaging with primary accounts of life in the Middle East change your understanding?

Teaching Suggestion: When discussing this question, it will be useful to stress the term “assumption” when talking through Western perceptions of Pakistani culture and to push students to consider the difference between primary and secondary sources of information and how pop-culture depictions of the Middle East have influenced Western ideas of the region.

• Cultural Atlas has an in-depth, more objective description of the National Identity of Pakistan.
• NPR's “Picturing Pakistan’s Past: The Beatles, Booze and Bikinis” shows a side of Pakistan most students may find surprising.
• United States Institute of Peace’s “Pakistan: A Rising Women’s Movement Confronts a New Backlash” explores the feminist movement in the country.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

There are certain speeches, delivered throughout history, that have left a powerful impact upon listeners. Maybe the speech inspired people to take action, maybe it encouraged people to think or to see something from a fresh perspective. Whatever the case, listeners come away from the speech forever changed. What are some memorable speeches that come to mind for you personally? Why did you find the speech so moving?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt will get students thinking about the Power of Words, one of the core themes in the book. In the following links, you will find lists of a total of 20 inspirational speeches, all of which should give students a better understanding of this concept.

• “The 10 Greatest Speeches of All Time, by 10 Inspirational Women” compiled by Marie Claire UK focuses on speeches delivered by women.
• The Archive’s “10 Famous Speeches That Shaped History” is a more general look, spanning a broader timeframe, of celebrated speeches throughout history.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a more multimedia approach to this prompt, you may opt to show students Malala’s 2014 acceptance speech when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, often referred to as the “I am here to stand up for their rights, to raise their voice” speech. At the age of 17, Malala became the youngest person to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize. In her speech, she covers many of the core topics in the book: The importance of education, her father’s support, and the need for social reform in Pakistan. Malala’s full 28-minute-long speech is available on the Nobel Prize’s YouTube page.