We Are Displaced

Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 in Mingora, Pakistan. When the Taliban began to infiltrate her hometown in 2008, Yousafzai publicly opposed their policy of denying girls the right to go to school and blogged about her experience and opinions for BBC Urdu. Her father was also outspoken on this matter, as he had established a local school for girls which Yousafzai attended. In 2012 a Taliban gunman attempted to assassinate Yousafzai for her activism. Despite being shot in the head, Yousafzai survived the attack and was relocated to England to recover. This incident made Yousafzai famous around the world.

When Yousafzai recovered from her injuries, she continued to live in Birmingham, England, and established the Malala Fund to expand her activism for girls’ education. In 2014 Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts and is the youngest person to ever receive the award. Yousafzai penned We Are Displaced to educate the public on the plight of displaced people, in particular women, around the globe. She offers her perspective as someone who experienced internal displacement as well as international refuge and rose from obscurity to global fame.