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

The Quran is a complex and multi-faceted symbol throughout I Am Malala. Reflect upon the moments that the Quran appears throughout the text, and discuss the following questions as a class:

• How does the Quran contribute to Yousafzai’s messaging in the book around Individual Versus Society? As a Muslim-majority nation, consider how the Quran is used in Pakistani citizens’ private lives and how it is used as a mechanism of control/power.
• How does the Quran contribute to the battle of Knowledge Versus Ignorance in I Am Malala? Who is permitted to read the Quran? How is it used as a tool to further knowledge/education? How is it used as a tool to maintain ignorance?
• As a written text, how does the symbol of the Quran emphasize the Power of Words?

Teaching Suggestion: Throughout I Am Malala, the Quran is not only a symbol for control and power; it is also a symbol representing hope, peace, and protection. As a symbol for control/power, Malala documents how certain groups and individuals can interpret the Quran in ways that attempt to sway the community and seize power—for example, see Chapter 9 in the way that Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah draws on the Quran and Muslim faith in his takeover of Swat Valley. As a symbol for hope/peace/protection, direct students to the scenes immediately after Malala is shot by the Taliban in Chapter 21-Epilogue and review the sections in which Malala’s mother recites Quranic passages to the sky, praying that it will aid Malala in her recovery.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced learners, the following question could be added to this prompt: Given what you know about the Muslim faith, is it possible for the Quran to be read as a feminist text? As a debate, this question requires a higher level of thinking and analysis. Have students focus on how Yousafzai and the Taliban both draw from the same source text (the Quran), but come to wildly different interpretations. To further the discussion, you may opt to have students read the Reuters article “Woman Re-interprets Koran with Feminist View,” which discusses how a new translation by Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar aimed to illustrate a more feministic-centric interpretation of the text.