We Are Displaced

Yousafzai introduces Part 2 by explaining that she took a trip to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in 2014 where she met other young women who were also displaced from their homes. She shares that refugees are often brave and resilient people who experience a “tangle of emotions” when they must leave their homes (Location 399). Yousafzai argues that negative feelings such as homesickness are often overlooked in the public discourse about refugee issues. She shares that while she is grateful to the UK for becoming her second home, she also continues to feel homesick for Pakistan. Yousafzai shares that while the public is interested in her personal story, she wants to use her profile to raise awareness about refugee issues around the globe. The next chapter features Zaynab, a young woman that Yousafzai met at a screening of her documentary film “He Named Me Malala” in Minneapolis.

Zaynab describes her journey from Egypt to the United States. Though she was happy to be accepted into the US as an 18-year-old refugee, she had to leave her 16-year-old sister, Sabreen, behind. Zaynab recalls leaving Yemen, which had become a dangerous place to live, and staying with distant relatives in Egypt for several years.