I Am Malala: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Near Malala’s school, there lived a tall, handsome mufti (scholar of Islam) named Ghulamullah. Malala’s father sensed that Ghulamullah didn’t approve of the notion of a school for women. “He was right,” Malala notes. Ghulamullah eventually accused Ziauddin of running a haram (blasphemous) school, and of corrupting women against Allah.

Malala makes a few comments on Islam in Pakistan. While she’s proud to be a member of the Muslim community, she rejects the notion that Islam involves women being submissive to men. The Quran (Islam’s holy book), she argues, teaches Muslims to be patient, but Muslims in Pakistan often resort to violence to get their way. In the 70s and 80s, millions of Hindus were chased out of Pakistan, and many of them were murdered. In retaliation, Hindus attacked Muslims fleeing India—this created a cycle of violence that continues in Malala’s lifetime. Even within Islam, Malala continues, there is a historic split between the Sunnis and Shias. These two religious sects have always disagreed about who the proper successor to Muhammed was. The vast majority of Pakistan—about 80 percent—is Sunni. But even within this group, there many subgroups. There are the Barelvis, the Salafists, the Deobandi, etc. Each of these subgroups celebrates the Quran in a slightly different way.

Ghulamullah held a public meeting to discuss the virtues of Ziauddin’s school. He invited Ziauddin to this meeting, where he accused Ziauddin of perverting the Quran. Ziauddin calmly argued that the Quran encouraged women to improve their minds and souls, citing passages from the book to back up his argument. Eventually, he and Ghulamullah agreed to a compromise: Ziauddin would build a new, private gate through which the girls would enter the school. This way, men wouldn’t see women entering the school. Ghulamullah didn’t like this compromise, however, since he was aiming to shut down Ziauddin’s school altogether.

In the early 2000s, Malala’s community grew noticeably more conservative than the rest of Pakistan. Malala’s neighbors embraced the doctrine of jihad and openly criticized the United States. Jihadists walked through the streets openly. Malala was terrified of these people, because they despised the notion of women’s rights. In 2003, Ziauddin opened a high school in Swat. At first the school was coed, but this quickly changed—the climate in Pakistan was too controversial, and Ziauddin was forced to separate the boys and girls. Once again the mufti tried to shut down the school, but failed. Ziauddin was still too popular and respected.

In 2004, Malala reports, General Musharraf sent troops to the area between Afghanistan and Pakistan as a part of his alliance with the United States. This area was rumored to be a safe haven for members of al-Qaeda, the group that claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Many people in Malala’s community went to fight, but later refused to attack al-Qaeda due to their personal sympathies with the movement. Shortly afterwards, Malala reports, the United States sent drones to attack Pakistani villages, supposedly to eliminate Osama bin Laden.

In 2006, an American drone killed 82 people in the town of Khar, very close to where Malala lived. America claimed that the drone was targeting an al-Qaeda training camp, despite the fact that most of the 82 dead were children. In response, the elders in Mingora held a meeting, in which they proposed that all loyal Muslims take up arms against the United States. Malala’s father was one of the only people who opposed this plan—he argued that opposing America would only bring further violence and death to Mingora. Much to his frustration, few people agreed with him.