First Names: Malala Yousafzai

First Names: Malala Yousafzai — page 3 — but Malala didn’t make a sound She just squeezed Moniba’s hand harder A split second later the man pulled the trigger and everything went black Malala was bleeding profusely profusely as the bus swerved through the heaving streets of Mingora speeding toward the local hospital Once there doctors said her prospects were grim so grim that with a heavy heart Malala’s dad began making funeral arrangements For a short while it looked like the men had succeeded in their quest to silence her But Malala did not die she survived and within days of her shooting she had become one of most famous famous teenagers on the planet And she was more determined determined than ever to stand up for what she believed in that every single girl in the world deserved to go to school And she wanted as many people to hear her message as possible She has since written books appeared on television and met all sorts of important people including President Obama and the Queen of England She’s also the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize 2

First Names: Malala Yousafzai — page 4 — Incredible stuff right Yes but I'm actually quite ordinary you know Yeah right Didn’t Beyoncé wish you a happy birthday once Well yes And Selena Gomez called you her role model OK OK but I promise you the real Malala isn't all that different from other girls Really Yes I love television and I argue with my brothers over stupid things like the TV remote and who ate the last slice of pizza You like pizza Oh yes And curry And cupcakes Mmmmm especially especially cupcakes And I like reading and listening to music and shopping and hanging out with my friends Oh and I hate getting up in the morning Hmm all of that does sound pretty ordinary actually So what makes Malala’s story so special Well it didn’t start with the shooting and the sudden fame This ordinary girl was destined to achieve extraordinary extraordinary things from the very moment she was born 3

First Names: Malala Yousafzai — page 5 — 1 No Party for Malala Ziauddin Yousafzai was over the moon On the hot sticky morning of July 12 1997 his wife gave birth to their first child a beautiful bouncing baby girl Over the next few days he was so excited that he told everyone he met about the new addition to his family People were polite but confused It's a girl Why was he so happy and proud After all his wife had a baby girl The thing is in Pakistan even today from the second they enter the world boys and girls are mostly treated very differently When a baby boy is born the family celebrates Guns are fired up into the sky and visitors come to coo over the cradle and cram it with sweets and money But when a baby girl is born no gunshots no gifts people don’t even bother to visit Instead they sympathize with the poor mother and hope for her sake that her next child will be a boy 4

First Names: Malala Yousafzai — page 6 — Girls play as important a role in Pakistan as they do anywhere else in the world but some families see raising girls as a financial burden Girls aren’t allowed allowed to go out to work and provide for their families like boys do and it can cost over a million rupees about 15,000 to marry a daughter off Most girls spend their lives at home being wives and mothers cooking and looking after the house and their children And for some reason that doesn’t seem as important as earning a regular income This is the way it’s been for hundreds of years which is why Ziauddin’s celebrating his daughter was so unusual That's my dad for you With a different set of parents I'd probably be married with at least two babies by now To get to know me you need to understand them first High Flying Ziauddin Ziauddin had a habit of challenging tradition that started when he was a boy and brother to five sisters While he and his older brother went off to school the girls stayed at home and learned how to run a house so that when they got married and 5

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