“I was a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children.”
“I was named after Malalai of Maiwand, the greatest heroine of Afghanistan.”
“My mother always told me, ‘Hide your face – people are looking at you.’ I would reply, ‘It doesn’t matter; I’m also looking at them,’ and she’d get so cross.”
“We were scared, but our fear was not as strong as our courage.”
“When someone takes away your pens you realise quite how important education is.”
“Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow.”
“I don’t want to be thought of as ‘the girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but ‘the girl who fought for education’. This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.”
“One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”
“Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.”
Gates Notes: Meeting Malala
The Guardian: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai – review
The Washington Post: Book review: ‘I Am Malala’ by Malala Yousafzai
The Wall Street Journal: ‘He Named Me Malala’ Review: Heroics Run in the Family
The Economist: Malala Yousafzai explains why girls must be free to learn—and to lead
The Independent: Malala Day: Learn more about the activist by reading these books about her life