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

Dead bodies are left in the square so people could see them each morning, as a warning against resisting the Taliban. The Taliban continues to target culture, and Malala notes the disappearing music and dancing that traditionally made up their lives. “I couldn’t understand what the Taliban were trying to do. ‘They are abusing our religion,’ I said in interviews. ‘How will you accept Islam if I put a gun to your head and say Islam is the true religion? If they want every person in the world to be Muslim, why don’t they show themselves to be good Muslims first?’” (149).

Unfortunately, few speak out. “It seemed as if people had decided the Taliban were here to stay and they had better get along with them” (149). Malala’s father is threatened—people tell him about his name being mentioned on Mullah FM. Regardless, her father continues to speak out. For others, the risk remains too high. “[F]ear is very powerful and in the end it was this fear that had made people turn against [others]. Terror had made people cruel. The Taliban bulldozed both our Pashtun values and the values of Islam” (153).