I had the run of the school as my playground. My father tells me even before I could talk I would toddle into classes and talk as if I was a teacher. Some of the female staff like Miss Ulfat would pick me up and put me on their lap as if I was their pet or even take me home with them for a while. When I was three or four I was placed in classes for much older children. I used to sit in wonder, listening to everything they were being taught. Sometimes I would mimic the teachers. You could say I grew up in a school.

学校就像是我的游乐场，我可以自由进出。父亲告诉我，在我还不会讲话时，就会摇摇晃晃地走进教室里，咿呀发音，假装自己是一位老师。有些女老师，例如乌尔法小姐，经常把我抱起来，放在她的腿上，好像我是她的宠物一样。女老师们有时甚至会把我带回她们家里照顾。三四岁的时候，我被安排进一个学生年纪都比我大许多的班级里。我坐在那里，好奇地听着他们在学些什么。有时候，我会模仿老师说的话。我真的是一个在学校里长大的孩子。

As my father had found with Naeem, it is not easy to mix business and friendship. Eventually Hidayatullah left to start his own school and they divided the students, each taking two of the four years. They did not tell their pupils as they wanted people to think the school was expanding and had two buildings. Though Hidayatullah and my father were not speaking at that time, Hidayatullah missed me so much he used to visit me.

父亲跟纳伊姆合资办学，工作和友情交杂在一起，两人都十分辛苦。最后，希达亚图拉也离开了，开办了自己的学校。他们将学生人数分成两半，一人拥有两个年级的学生。他们并没有把这些告诉学生们，而是让大家以为学校扩校了，有了两栋建筑。虽然那时希达亚图拉已经不跟我父亲交谈了，他仍会因为想念我而回来探望我。

It was while he was visiting one afternoon in September 2001 that there was a great commotion and other people started arriving. They said there had been a big attack on a building in New York. Two planes had flown into it. I was only four and too young to understand. Even for the adults it was hard to imagine – the biggest buildings in Swat are the hospital and a hotel, which are two or three storeys. It seemed very far away. I had no idea what New York and America were. The school was my world and my world was the school. We did not realise then that 9/11 would change our world too, and would bring war into our valley.

2001年9月的某天下午，他回来看我，一件大事发生了，不断有人来到家里。他们说纽约一栋大楼遭到很严重的攻击，两架飞机直接撞进建筑物里。我当时才四岁，还不懂到底发生了什么。这件事甚至对于大人们来说，也很难想象--斯瓦特最大的建筑就是医院和旅馆，也都不过两三层楼高。那起事件似乎离我们非常遥远。我完全不知道纽约和美国是什么模样。学校就是我的全世界，我的全世界就是那所学校。我们当时不会想到，9.11事件也会改变我们的世界，并将战争带进我们的河谷。