WORD LISTS

Vocabulary from "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai

Tue Oct 09 09:56:30 EDT 2018
By Ms. Applegate (NY)
An ordinary Pakistani girl is shot by the Taliban while fighting for her right to an education. In this memoir, Malala Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, tells her story. Here are links to our lists for the book: Prologue–Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five–Epilogue
cheeky
My youngest brother, Atal, was in an especially cheeky mood that morning.
banter
All this banter nearly made me late, and I raced out the door, my half-eaten breakfast still on the table.
fickle
I think Bella from Twilight is too fickle, and I don’t understand why she would choose that boring Edward.
pacifist
Heroes like Mahatma Gandhi, the great pacifist, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
veranda
My mother and the women would gather on our veranda at the back of the house and cook and laugh and talk about new clothes, jewelry, and other ladies in the neighborhood
raucous
Tinkling laughter sometimes. Raucous, uproarious laughter sometimes.
blasphemy
“I am representing good Muslims,” the mufti said. “And we all think your girls’ high school is a blasphemy.
ploy
He claimed that this medical aid was not meant to help; he said it was a ploy by Western countries to harm Muslim children.
militant
A group of militants that had been taking an active stance against the government had now taken hostages and hidden inside the madrasa of Lai Masjid, or the Red Mosque.
infidel
Often a note was pinned to the body: This is what happens to spies and infidels.
extremism
“We will defeat the forces of extremism and militancy with the power of the people,” she declared.
haven
School remained a haven from the insanity of a city in the middle of a war.
edict
We debated his edict in class.
pseudonym
I didn’t want to change my name, but he was worried about my safety. That is why he chose a pseudonym for me: Gul Makai, which means “cornflower” and is the name of a heroine in a Pashtun folk story.
reprimand
Girls like us might be reprimanded.
accost
One day, when my mother went to the market to buy a gift for my cousin’s wedding, a big, burly Talib accosted her and blocked her way.
plight
The New York Times documentary had aired and brought even more attention to the plight of girls in Swat, and we started receiving messages of support from people all over the world.
reconciliation
I knew it would take a long time for the seed to bear fruit, like the reconciliation and rebuilding the government had promised, but it was my way of saying I was full of hope for a long and peaceful future in Mingora.
futile
I tried to tell myself this terrible letter was just the futile and parting shot of a defeated Taliban.
transpire
And yet, as my parents told me everything that had transpired while I was in a coma or in my windowless hospital room, it was almost as if they were telling me a story about someone else.
attache
He would be Pakistan’s education attache.
humanitarian
I am making books, documentaries, and speeches, and I am meeting interesting people, doing social media campaigns, and engaging in humanitarian work.

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