雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第4章11:索瑞雅
When Soraya’s family found out about the union they were furious. They threatened the widower’s family until a jirga was called of village elders to resolve the dispute. The jirga decided that the widower’s family should be punished by handing over their most beautiful girl to be married to the least eligible man of the rival clan. The boy was a good-for-nothing, so poor that the girl’s father had to pay all their expenses. Why should a girl’s life be ruined to settle a dispute she had nothing to do with?
當索瑞雅的家人發現這樁婚事時，氣壞了。他們不停地脅迫鰥夫的家族，直到村裏的一位支爾格[3]長老出面調停。支爾格決定鰥夫的家族應該受罰，必須交出家裏最漂亮的女孩，把她嫁給仇家中那個最配不上她的男孩子。那位男孩不但一無是處，而且非常窮困，新娘的父親甚至不得不支付他們的一切開銷。爲什麼一個女孩子的大好人生要賠在一場與她毫不相干的糾紛上呢？
When I complained about these things to my father he told me that life was harder for women in Afghanistan. The year before I was born a group called the Taliban led by a one-eyed mullah had taken over the country and was burning girls’ schools. They were forcing men to grow beards as long as a lantern and women to wear burqas. Wearing a burqa is like walking inside big fabric shuttlecock with only a grille to see through and on hot days it’s like an oven. At least I didn’t have to wear one. He said that the Taliban had even banned women from laughing out loud or wearing white shoes as white was ‘a colour that belonged to men’. Women were being locked up and beaten just for wearing nail varnish. I shivered when he told me such things.
當我向父親抱怨這一類的事情時，他告訴我，阿富汗的婦女生活更加辛苦。我出生的前一年，阿富汗被一位獨眼毛拉領導的一個名爲塔利班的團體佔領後，開始放火燒女子學校。他們強迫男性都要留長長的鬍鬚，女性則必須穿上罩袍。穿罩袍就像是裹在一個巨大的布制羽毛球裏，只能通過一個小洞觀察外面。天氣熱的時候，簡直跟穿着火爐沒有兩樣。父親說塔利班甚至禁止女性大笑或是穿白色的鞋子，因爲“白色是男性專屬的顏色”。婦女會因爲擦了指甲油而被關起來毒打。當父親告訴我這些事的時候，我感到不寒而慄。
I read my books like Anna Karenina and the novels of Jane Austen and trusted in my father’s words: ‘Malala is free as a bird.’ When I heard stories of the atrocities in Afghanistan I felt proud to be in Swat. ‘Here a girl can go to school, ’ I used to say. But the Taliban were just around the corner and were Pashtuns like us. For me the valley was a sunny place and I couldn’t see the clouds gathering behind the mountains. My father used to say, ‘I will protect your freedom, Malala. Carry on with your dreams.’
我看過《安娜.卡列尼娜》和簡.奧斯汀的小說，我也相信父親說的，“馬拉拉像只小鳥一樣自由”。當我聽說阿富汗發生的暴行時，我很驕傲自己是斯瓦特人。“在這裏，女孩子可以去上學。”我總是這麼說。但塔利班就在附近，而且他們跟我們一樣是普什圖人。對我來說，河谷地區是個充滿陽光的地方，但我卻沒有看見山頭之後，烏雲正漸漸聚集。父親總說：“我會捍衛你的自由，繼續追求夢想吧，馬拉拉。”
