-
9/11 Terrorists Attack
America tried to persuade General Musharraf because they needed Pakistan's help to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and catch Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, the group that caused the 9/11 terrorist attack. Some people thought Osama was a hero, they said 9/11 was revenge on the Americans for what they had been doing to other people around the world. -
Fazlullah Starts Radio Station in Swat
In Malala's valley they received most of their information from the radio since most people had no TV .Maulana Fazlullah started a radio station, at first he was very intelligent, Malala said "He used his station to encourage people to adopt good habits and abandon practices he said were bad." but eventually he started to misinterpret the Quran and he started saying things like dancing and listening to music were bad. Fazlullah creating the radio station was only the beginning of his "plan". -
A Terrible Earthquake Hits Malala's Valley
This earthquake turned out to be the one of the worst in history. On the Richter Scale it was a 7.6. Malala's town ,Mingora, wasn't affected as badly as some of the other valleys. Landslides blocked access "to the worst affected parts and all the phones and power lines were down". Malala was in school during this earthquake, About 6,400 schools were turned into "rubble" and about 18,000 children died. Malala said she remembered how scared she was that morning and started raising money at school. -
All Girls' Schools Closed
By the end of 2008, Fazlullah's deputy Maulana Shah announced on the radio that all girls' schools would close, he said from January 15 girls must not go to school. Towards the end of 2008 around 400 schools had been destroyed by the Taliban. -
Malala Gives Her First Speech
Malala was only eleven years old when she gave her first speech. Her speech was titled "How Dare The Taliban Take Away My Basic Right To Education?". Her father wrote this speech for her, in her book she described how nervous she was and she kept messing up while she was giving her speech. Although she didn't win this speech contest , she continued to participate in other contests and she got better at giving speeches. -
Malala Starts a Diary For Abdul Hai Kakar
Malala's father received a call from his friend Abdul Hai Kakar, he was looking for a schoolgirl or female teacher to write a diary about life under the Taliban. Malala said "He wanted to show the human side of the catastrophe in Swat.",this was very dangerous considering the Taliban were willing to kill anybody who went against them so Malala had to use a different name to protect her identity. Her first diary appeared on January 3,2009.Malala wrote about being afraid to go to school. -
Malala and her Family as well as many others leave Swat
The Taliban started getting worse, they "killed thousands of people in suicide bombings and beheadings and destroyed hundreds of schools"(Malala), so president Obama announced the US government were sending 21,000 troops over to Afghanistan to "turn around the war against the Taliban". At first Malala's father said they should stay in Swat but the gunfire kept them all awake and they were woken up by screaming, so they left Swat. -
Pakistani Journalist (Irfan Ashraf) and American Video Journalist (Adam Ellick)Follows Malala Around
On Wednesday, January 14th, was the day Malala's school closed, and that morning Malala woke up and saw TV cameras in her bedroom. The cameras were there for a documentary for the New York Times website to show all the people in the world what was happening to the girls in Pakistan. The documentary was called "Class Dismissed". The Taliban closed the school, which was the school Malala's father started. -
Malala Gets Shot
One day while Malala was on her way home from school, her bus got stopped and a man, who was part of the Taliban, got on the bus and shot Malala and a couple of her friends. That Taliban wanted Malala dead because of her activism, she simply wanted education for all children, including girls, and the Taliban were against that. -
Malala Gets Taken To England
After Malala got shot ,she was in very bad condition, her father even asked relatives to start arranging her funeral so in order for her to have the best chance of surviving she needed to go to the UK for the medical treatment. The doctors did several surgeries on Malala to get her as healthy as possible.
