Pakistan and all round the world who prayed for me, all the schoolchildren, students and other supporters who rose when I fell. I am grateful for every petal of the bouquets and every letter of the cards and messages.
I was very lucky to be born to a father who respected my freedom of thought and expression and made me part of his peace caravan, and a mother who not only encouraged me but my father too in our campaign for peace and education.
I have been blessed too with teachers, especially Miss Ulfat, who taught me a lot beyond textbooks such as patience, tolerance and manners.
Many people have described my recovery as miraculous, and for this I would particularly like to thank the doctors and nurses at Swat Central Hospital, CMH Peshawar and AFIC Rawalpindi, especially my heroes Colonel Junaid and Dr Mumtaz, who carried out the right operation at the right time or I would have died. Thanks also to Brigadier Aslam, who saved my major organs from failure after surgery.
I am extremely grateful to General Kayani, who took a keen interest in my treatment, and to President Zardari and his family, whose love and care kept me strong. Thanks to the UAE government and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed for the use of their plane.
Dr Javid Kayani made me laugh in my gloomy days and was like a father to me. He was the man behind my treatment in the UK and first-class rehabilitation. Dr Fiona Reynolds was a great source of comfort to my parents in Pakistan and to me in the UK, and I thank her too for daring to tell me the truth about my tragedy.
The staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham have been amazing. Julie and her team of nurses were so kind to me, and Beth and Kate were not only nurses but like loving sisters. I’d particularly like to thank Yma Choudhury, who took great care of me and made sure I had everything I needed, even going on daily KFC runs.
Richard Irving deserves a particular mention for his surgery to restore my smile, as does Mrs Anwen White who restored my skull.
Fiona Alexander not only managed the media superbly but went far beyond, even helping to arrange schooling for me and my brothers, always with a smile.
Rehanna Sadiq has been a wonderful comfort with her spiritual therapy.
Thanks to Shiza Shahid and her family for all their incredible kindness and for helping set up the Malala Fund, and to her company McKinsey for supporting her in doing this. Thank you to all the wonderful people and partner organisations who have helped set up the Fund especially Megan Smith, UN Foundation, Vital Voices and BeeSpace. I am also thankful to Samar Minallah for her great support of our cause and the Malala Fund.
Great thanks to everyone at Edelman, especially Jamie Lundie and his colleague Laura Crooks. My father would have gone mad without you!
Thanks as well to Gordon Brown, who has built on what happened to me to create a worldwide movement for education, and the wonderful staff in his office. And to Ban Ki-moon for being so supportive since the beginning.
Thanks to Pakistan’s former High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, and especially to Aftab Hasan Khan, the Head of Chancery, and his wife Erum Gilani, who were a great support. We were strangers and they helped us adjust to this land and find a place to live. Also thanks to driver Shahid Hussein.
On the book, our special thanks to Christina, who turned into reality what was just a dream. We never imagined how a lady not from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Pakistan could show such remarkable love and understanding of our country.
We have been extremely lucky to have a literary agent like Karolina Sutton, who has thrown herself into this project and our cause with such passion and commitment, and also an incredible team of editors: Judy Clain and Arzu Tahsin were determined to tell our story in the best way possible.
Thanks go to Abdul Hai Kakar, my mentor and great friend of my father, who thoroughly reviewed the book, and my father’s friend Inam ul-Rahim for his valuable contributions on the history of our region.
I would also like to thank Angelina Jolie for her generous contribution to the Malala Fund.
Thanks to all the teachers of the Khushal School, who have kept the school alive and maintained it in my father’s absence.
We thank God for the day a lady called Shahida Choudhury walked through our door. She has become an incredible support to our family and we have learned from her the real meaning of being a volunteer.
Last and not least I would like to thank Moniba for being such a good and supportive friend and my brothers Khushal and Atal for keeping me still a child.
Any foreigner who has had the good fortune to visit Swat will know how hospitable its people are, and I would like to thank everyone who helped me there, particularly Maryam and the teachers and students of the Khushal School, Ahmad Shah in Mingora and Sultan Rome for showing me around Shangla. I would also like to thank General Asim Bajwa, Colonel Abid Ali Askari, Major Tariq and the team at Inter Services Public Relations for facilitating my visit. Thanks also to Adam Ellick for generously sharing his notes.
In the UK, the staff of Queen Elizabeth Hospital could not have been more helpful, particularly Fiona Alexander and Dr Kayani. My agent David Godwin was wonderful as always, and it was a real privilege to have as editors Judy Clain and Arzu Tahsin. I’m also grateful to Martin Ivens, my editor at the
Above all, thanks to Malala and her wonderful family for sharing their story with me.
Important Events in Pakistan and Swat
14 August 1947 – Pakistan created as the world’s first homeland for Muslims; princely state of Swat joins Pakistan but keeps its special status
1947 – First Indo-Pakistan War
1948 – Death of founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah
1951 – Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan assassinated
1958 – General Ayub Khan seizes power in Pakistan’s first military coup
1965 – Second Indo-Pakistan War
1969 – Swat becomes part of North-West Frontier Province
1970 – Pakistan’s first national elections held
1971 – Third Indo-Pakistan War; East Pakistan becomes independent Bangladesh
1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becomes first elected prime minister
1977 – General Zia ul-Haq takes power in military coup
1979 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto hanged; Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1988 – General Zia and senior army officers killed in plane crash; elections held; Benazir Bhutto becomes first female prime minister in Islamic world
1989 – Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan complete
1990 – Benazir Bhutto government dismissed
1991 – Nawaz Sharif becomes prime minister
1993 – Nawaz Sharif forced to resign by army; second Benazir Bhutto government
1996 – Taliban take power in Kabul
1996 – Second Benazir Bhutto government dismissed
1997 – Nawaz Sharif forms second government
1998 – India conducts nuclear tests; Pakistan does same
1999 – Benazir Bhutto and husband Asif Ali Zardari convicted of corruption; Benazir goes
