Muslim Khan didn’t answer. ‘What about their own daughters?’ I asked my father. ‘Don’t they want them to learn?’

穆斯林•汗没有回答。“他们自己的女儿呢？”我问父亲，“难道他们不希望女儿们受教育吗？”

Our headmistress Madam Maryam had studied at Sangota, and her younger sister Ayesha was a pupil there, so she and some of the other Sangota girls transferred to our school.

玛丽安女士年轻时曾在桑戈塔求学，而她的妹妹阿依莎正在那里上学。爆炸发生后，她和其他一些原本就读桑戈塔的女学生转到了我们学校。

The monthly school fees were never enough to cover all our outgoings so the extra fees were welcome, but my father was unhappy.

我们每个月收到的学费永远不够支付所有的开销，因此能增加进账当然是一件好事，但我的父亲却开心不起来。

He went everywhere he could demanding the reconstruction of both schools. Once he spoke at a big gathering and held up an audience member’s baby girl and said, ‘This girl is our future. Do we want her to be ignorant?’ The crowd agreed that they would sacrifice themselves before giving up their daughters’ education.

他四处走访，要求重建这两所学校。有一次，他在一场盛大的集会中演讲。他抱起一名听众的女婴，面向人群，说：“这个女孩是我们的未来。我们希望她一生无知吗？”群众均点头称是，表示即便牺牲自己，也要捍卫女儿受教育的权利。

The new girls had horrible stories. Ayesha told us how one day on the way home from Sangota she had seen a Taliban holding up the severed head of a policeman by its hair, blood dripping from the neck.

新来的桑戈塔的女生们讲了一些很恐怖的故事。阿依莎告诉我们，有一天，在从桑戈塔下课回家的途中，她看见一名塔利班手里抓着一颗警察的头颅，鲜血从断掉的颈部不停滴下。

The Sangota girls were also very bright, which meant more competition. One of them, Rida, was excellent at making speeches. She became a good friend of mine and of Moniba’s, which sometimes caused fights as three is a tricky number.

桑戈塔来的女孩们都非常聪明，这意味着在课业方面，我们会面临更多竞争。她们其中的一位——丽达，是一名优秀的演说家。她和我，还有莫妮巴结为好友。我们之间偶尔也闹小矛盾，因为三个人在一起，难免会有摩擦。