雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第1章11:薩芬娜

Near us on our street there was a family with a girl my age called Safina and two boys similar in age to my brothers, Babar and Basit. We all played cricket on the street or rooftops together, but I knew as we got older the girls would be expected to stay inside. We’d be expected to cook and serve our brothers and fathers.

在我們家這條街上，不遠處有戶人家，他們有個女兒跟我同齡，名叫薩芬娜，他們還有兩個兒子，也跟我的兩個弟弟年紀相仿，分別是巴芭和巴賽特。我們常在街上或屋頂上一起打板球，但我知道等我們女孩子再長大一點，大人們就會要求我們待在家裏了。通常，對女孩的期望是負責煮飯並服侍父親和兄弟。男人們可以在城裏自由活動，即便只是個五歲的小男孩也可以！

While boys and men could roam freely about town, my mother and I could not go out without a male relative to accompany us, even if it was a five-year-old boy! This was the tradition.

而我和母親卻必須要有男性親戚的陪伴纔可以出門！這就是傳統。

I had decided very early I would not be like that. My father always said, ‘Malala will be free as a bird.’ I dreamed of going to the top of Mount Elum like Alexander the Great to touch Jupiter and even beyond the valley. But, as I watched my brothers running across the roof, flying their kites and skilfully flicking the strings back and forth to cut each other’s down, I wondered how free a daughter could ever be.

很早以前，我就下定決心，不要過那樣的生活。父親總是說：“馬拉拉會像只小鳥一般自由。”我夢想能登上埃勒姆頂峯，像亞歷山大大帝一樣，伸手撫觸木星，甚至離開河谷地區。但當我看着弟弟們在屋頂上跑來跑去、放着風箏，熟練地控制手中的線繩，企圖擊落對方的風箏時，我不禁懷疑，身爲一個女兒，我究竟能獲取多少自由。