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I am very proud to be a Pashtun, but sometimes I think our code of conduct has a lot to answer for, particularly where the treatment of women is concerned. A woman named Shahida who worked for us and had three small daughters told me that when she was only ten years old her father had sold her to an old man who already had a wife but wanted a younger one.
In Chapter 4, Malala reflects on some of the double standards inherent in her Pashtun heritage. While she cherishes her culture, she feels that too many of its practices are unfair to women and need to be updated. Malala has no intention of observing purdah when she reaches adulthood as it is a restrictive way of life that would put an end to her activism. She developed disdain for such practices in part from listening to the stories of real people like Shahida who suffer the negative consequences of traditions that encourage the exploitation of young women.
When you’re very young, you love the burqa because it’s great for dressing up. But when you are made to wear it, that’s a different matter. Also it makes walking difficult!
In Chapter 13, Malala describes a diary entry she wrote for the BBC under the pseudonym Gul Makai, where she makes a simple but meaningful distinction about wearing a burqa voluntarily. Pakistani women must cover their faces and heads when they reach adulthood. Malala’s parents support her decision to forgo a burqa, but many girls do not have the same luxury. They must cover themselves, and by submitting to this physical covering of their bodies, they forfeit some of their identity. Aside from the larger implications of covering all women from head to toe, Malala also points out that she doesn’t like burqas for practical reasons.
We want to be free to go to school or to go to work. Nowhere is it written in the Quran that a woman should be dependent on a man. The word has not come down from the heavens to tell us that every woman should listen to a man.
In Chapter 18, Malala and her family visit her Aunt Najma who has lived in a seaside city all her life but was only seeing the ocean for the first time because her husband would not take her to the beach. Malala asserts that the relationship between husband and wife is another instance in which the Quran is misused at the expense of women. The freedom of women is dependent on them being able to make their own decisions, but militants claim the Quran supports a subservient life for them. Malala is adamant about bringing awareness to this issue, and in her public speeches, often opposes arguments that are based on a misreading of the holy book of Islam.
