We Are Displaced

Yousafzai recounts her journey home with her family, three months after they evacuated from the Swat Valley. Upon their return, she and her family witnessed the damage that the warfare had done to their hometown. They were shocked to find buildings destroyed and burned cars in the road. When they arrived at their home it was dusty but undamaged, though the children were sad that their chicks died of starvation in their yard. While Yousafzai was relieved that the Taliban appeared to be gone and her house was intact, she remembers being overwhelmed with sadness at being home.

Yousafzai toured her girls’ school and found that it was severely damaged, but her father was determined to fix it and make it operational again. While the Pakistani army weakened the Taliban’s network and forced them into hiding, the Taliban were still active in the community and continued to make targeted killings. Yousafzai recalls that her fear of the Taliban would ebb and flow depending on the circumstances. During this time local businesses reopened, and schools were repaired. Yousafzai continued to write about girls’ education on her blog and was hopeful that she would complete her education and go into politics. She was shot by the Taliban in October 2012 in a targeted attempt to murder her for her activism.

Her last memory before the shooting was talking with her friends on their school bus, and then waking up in a hospital. Yousafzai writes that she was transferred from hospital to hospital in Pakistan before being sent to Birmingham, England, for further treatment. She notes that this trip was yet another form of displacement, but she remained resilient despite her injuries and trauma.

Yousafzai spent three months in the hospital in Birmingham before being released. She and her family felt out of place in their new home. She explains that the views, weather, food, and clothes were so different from Pakistan that it made her feel homesick. Yousafzai wanted to go home to Pakistan and was not aware that the Taliban continued to make death threats against her. After a few months of living in Birmingham and recovering from her injuries, Yousafzai began attending school in England where she struggled to socialize and make new friends. The author explains that she was very inspired by the letters she received from students around the world, especially girls and women, that expressed support for her and her activism. She also realized that the Taliban’s violence raised her profile at home and abroad, making her more determined to use her fame for good as a girls’ rights activist.