I am Malala by Christina Lamb

The first part of the book is a pretty ordinary description of Malala’s family life and a brief version of Christina Lamb’s history of Pakistan. It is from the second part where the story begins to get really interesting with the Taliban slowly moving into Malala’s beloved Swat valley. It seems that the Taliban are happy to use fiery Maulanas as their mouthpieces while they remain in the background judging the results of their version of Islam. The reactions of the common man in Swat are brilliantly captured by Malala and I can see why this memoir is being dubbed as similar to Anne Frank’s diary. This also explains why Malala’s story has such struck such an emotional chord in the Western world, although most in Pakistan are still unconvinced about her plight which is indeed a sad state of affairs, but completely understandable. As unfortunately the Taliban still remain a visible and potent threat to the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan, who are behind most of the terrorist activities in the whole region. As mentioned in the book so lucidly, most Pakistanis cannot simply see anything bad in the Islamic message preached by the Taliban sponsored Maulana’s like Fazlulla till the time the same hardline regime takes over. Swat, therefore resembles a microcosm of Taliban regime takeover. So instead of criticising Malala for being a Western puppet, they should take heed, empathise with the people of Swat and reject the Taliban and all their sponsored Maulanas before the whole country is affected.

I failed to see why Malala was so against the Pakistan army in her story. Her criticism seemed to be based on the premise that Pakistan Army was all powerful so how could let the Taliban into Swat valley? Therefore there must be some elements of the Army supporting the Taliban. Well the answer seems to be in her own book. Taliban use Islam as justification for their actions, and most Pakistanis are religious, thus reluctant to reject Taliban outright. Unfortunately, the all powerful Pakistani Army is also predominantly Muslim, therefore are affected by similar apprehensions towards the Taliban, hence the indecision. I am amazed that Malala and Christina Lamb have compared the Pakistan army with the Taliban over and over again in this book, without giving any evidence to any alleged atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army. This is a gross injustice to the perception of Pakistan Army. There was a civilian Islamist elected government in KPK when the Taliban infiltrated Swat valley. If anyone is to blame, it has to be the people of KPK for electing Islamist parties as their representatives. The reality is that most Pakistani are devout Islamists, therefore shy away from rejecting the pious looking Taliban with their vanguard fiery Maulana’s firing verbal Islamist missiles. It is not the Army responsible, it is the confused Islamic opinion of the general populace which is to blame. There real battle is change of narrative not guns.

Also Malala and Christina have made repeated references to the corrupt politicians of pakistan who don't pay taxes. I have news for them, no one does apart from the salaried class who are deducted at source. Has Malala’s honourable dad ever paid tax himself? So if most ‘honorable’ Pakistanis refuse to pay tax, who will pay the government salaries?

All in all the book is very interesting when depicting life under the Taliban in Swat. The rest of the book was pretty ordinary for a Pakistani like me.