We Are Displaced

Malala Yousafzai

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2018

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 2, Introduction and Chapters 7-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-12

Part 2, Chapters 13-15

Part 2, Chapter 16-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Index of Terms

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)

The term Internally Displaced Persons refers to people who experience displacement within their own nation. For example, when Yousafzai fled Mingora, Pakistan to Shangla, Pakistan she was an IDP.

ISIS

The term ISIS refers to the terrorist organization Islamic State, which is sometimes called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or Daesh. While this was founded in 1999, it rose to prominence in 2014 when its fighters began to try to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state or civilization, in Syria and Iraq.

This group is notorious for its brutal attacks on religious minorities and various other war crimes. In We Are Displaced, ISIS is discussed in Najla’s chapter, as she escaped an ISIS genocide of her Yazidi community in northern Iraq.

Mingora

Mingora is the largest city in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan, and Yousafzai’s hometown.

Swat Valley

The Swat Valley is a region in the northeast of Pakistan with a population of over 2 million people. In We Are Displaced Yousafzai explains that the Swat Valley is renowned for its mountainous natural beauty. Its largest city is Mingora, which is Yousafzai’s hometown.

Taliban

The Taliban is a group of militant Islamic extremists that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. This group fought off rival militia groups to rule most of Afghanistan from the late 1990s until the US-led invasion in 2001. During their time in power, the Taliban gained a reputation for their strict interpretation of Islamic law, which included forbidding girls’ education, mandating women to wear the Burqa, discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, and violence against civilians. The Taliban’s insurgency into the Swat Valley of Pakistan is an important feature of Yousafzai’s testimony, as their ban on girls’ education is what prompted her activism, and ultimately, the Taliban’s attempt to take her life. While the Taliban has since been ousted from Pakistan, it presently governs neighboring Afghanistan.