I Am Malala: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

The chapter begins three months after the events of the previous one. Malala has been away from her home, Mingora, for months—but now she and her family are driving back to Mingora. The prime minister of Pakistan has announced that the Taliban have been cleared out of Swat, making the area safe once again. As Ziauddin drives, Malala sees the ruins of her home: houses she used to visit have been blown apart, and the beautiful gardens outside each house have become overgrown with weeds.

When Malala and her family arrive back in their home, they check to see if they’ve been robbed. To their enormous relief, their home has been left virtually undisturbed. Malala is happy to find that the books she bought in Islamabad are still in her room. Inside the Khushal School, Malala is disturbed to see cigarette ashes, bullet casings, graffiti, and the corpses of goats. Clearly, the Taliban has treated the school as a target. Ziauddin is surprised to find a letter inside the school, sent by a Pakistani soldier. In the letter, the soldier criticizes the people of Swat for allowing the Taliban to take over their lives.

Malala tries to adjust to her new life in Mingora. Although the Pakistani army now keeps Mingora stable, she finds that things aren’t much different than they were when the Taliban dominated Mingora. Soldiers leave the bodies of dead Taliban soldiers in public as a threat—much as the Taliban soldiers did with the bodies of their own enemies, months before.

Malala begins school once again in the fall of 2009. She is overjoyed to be learning once again. She learns that most of her friends have stayed with their families across Pakistan, however. She’s also saddened to learn that one friend lost her father in an explosion in another city in Pakistan. Malala discovers that most of her classmates know she wrote the BBC diary, as she referenced events that occurred in Mingora, and she’s the only one who could have written so eloquently.

Shiza Shahid, Ziauddin’s friend from Stanford, returns from Stanford to live in Islamabad. She invites girls from the Khushal School to visit Islamabad and talk about their experiences with the Taliban. Malala goes to Islamabad, along with Moniba, Malka-e-Noor, and many other students. Malala arrives in Islamabad, accompanied by her mother, on August 14. There she explores the parks and buildings of Islamabad, which she finds beautiful. She tries many things for the first time, liked going to an English-language play, and even samples food from McDonald’s. Most importantly, Malala meets women who are in positions of power: doctors, writers, journalists, etc. Malala finds these meetings especially inspiring.

While Malala is in Islamabad, Shiza introduces her (along with the other schoolgirls) to Major General Athar Abbas, the commander of the Pakistani army. Malala asks General Abbas a difficult question: where is Fazlullah, and why can’t Abbas bring him to justice for his crimes? Abbas takes more than fifteen minutes to answer this question, and when he’s finished, Malala has no idea what he’s said. Moniba asks Abbas who will rebuild the cities of Pakistan after the wars with the Taliban end. Abbas replies in an evasive, boilerplate way, leaving Moniba and Malala unsatisfied. On Malala’s final day in Islamabad, she and her friends give speeches at the Islamabad Club about life under the Taliban. Moniba gives an emotional speech, and before she finishes, she bursts into tears. In all, Malala’s trip to Islamabad makes her realize that Pakistan is a vast place, full of opportunities for women.

When Malala returns to Mingora, she finds that Ziauddin has a major problem: he has no income to pay the teachers at the Khushal School. Malala suggests that Ziauddin talk to General Abbas. Ziauddin realizes that this is a good idea. Malala sends an email to Abbas, and in response he sends the Khushal School over one million rupees, enough money to pay all the teachers for more than three months. Ziauddin is overjoyed by this turn of events.

Malala is grateful to General Abbas for his donation to the Khushal School, but she continues to find fault in the way he runs the military in Pakistan. In Mingora, people are bullied and intimidated by the army, just as they were under the Taliban. Malala and her father give interviews in which they criticize the army for failing to bring the Taliban leaders to justice. Malala becomes increasingly interested in journalism after spending time giving interviews and making radio broadcasts.

As 2009 comes to an end, Malala does well on her school exams, coming in first (and narrowly edging out Malka-e-Noor). The first half of 2010 is uneventful, compared with the years preceding it. In July, Malala turns 13 years old. Around this time, monsoon floods begin in the Swat Valley, threatening the homes of thousands of people. In the past, the trees in the valley formed a natural barrier against the floods—now, just as Ziauddin had warned years ago, the trees have been chopped down, and floods are a serious danger. Bridges are destroyed, electric power lines collapse, and buildings flood. There is a general feeling that Allah is punishing the people—first with an earthquake, then a flood. Some people even suggest that Americans have engineered the flood and earthquake using military technology.

Following the floods, violence escalates. Taliban soldiers, still secretly living in the valley, blow up more schools and kidnap people they judge to be dangerous to Islam. Several of Ziauddin’s friends are murdered for protesting the Taliban in print. Malala is frustrated and frightened by the lack of progress in the valley. She resolves to become a politician when she grows up—someone who can bring progress to her country.