Fluent in Pashto, Urdu and English, Yousafzai was educated mostly by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is a poet, school owner,[25] and an educational activist himself, running a chain of private schools known as the Khushal Public School.[26][27]
In an interview, Yousafzai once stated that she aspired to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead.[3] Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, allowing her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.[28]
Inspired by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Yousafzai started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club.[6] "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?", Yousafzai asked her audience in a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region.[29] In 2009, Yousafzai began as a trainee and then a peer educator in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's Open Minds Pakistan youth programme, which worked in schools in the region to help young people engage in constructive discussion on social issues through the tools of journalism, public debate and dialogue.[30]
As a BBC blogger
See also: First Battle of Swat
From left to right: Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah have influenced Yousafzai
In late 2008, Aamer Ahmed Khan of the BBC Urdu website and his colleagues came up with a novel way of covering the Taliban's growing influence in Swat. They decided to ask a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life there. Their correspondent in Peshawar, Abdul Hai Kakar, had been in touch with a local school teacher, Ziauddin Yousafzai, but could not find any students willing to do so, as it was considered too dangerous by their families. Finally, Yousafzai suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala.[31] At the time, Taliban militants led by Maulana Fazlullah were taking over the Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls' education,[32] and women from going shopping.[33] Bodies of beheaded policemen were being displayed in town squares.[32] At first, a girl named Aisha from her father's school agreed to write a diary, but then the girl's parents stopped her from doing it because they feared Taliban reprisals. The only alternative was Yousafzai, four years younger than the original volunteer, and in seventh grade at the time.[34] Editors at the BBC unanimously agreed.[32]
I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 out of 27 pupils attended the class because the number decreased because of the Taliban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict.
“”
Malala Yousafzai, 3 January 2009 BBC blog entry[23]
"We had been covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn't know much about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban", said Mirza Waheed, the former editor of BBC Urdu. Because they were concerned about Yousafzai's safety, BBC editors insisted that she use a pseudonym.[32] Her blog was published under the byline "Gul Makai" ("cornflower" in Urdu),[35] a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale.[36][37]
On 3 January 2009, Yousafzai's first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog. She would hand-write notes and then pass them on to a reporter who would scan and e-mail them.[32] The blog records Yousafzai's thoughts during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations take place, fewer girls show up to school, and finally, her school shuts down.