5 Why I Don’t Wear Earrings and Pashtuns Don’t Say Thank You

5　为什么我不戴耳环，为什么普什图人不说“谢谢”

BY THE AGE of seven I was used to being top of my class. I was the one who would help other pupils who had difficulties. ‘Malala is a genius girl, ’ my class fellows would say. I was also known for participating in everything – badminton, drama, cricket, art, even singing, though I wasn’t much good. So when a new girl named Malka-e-Noor joined our class, I didn’t think anything of it. Her name means ‘Queen of Light’ and she said she wanted to be Pakistan’s first female army chief. Her mother was a teacher at a different school, which was unusual as none of our mothers worked. To begin with she didn’t say much in class. The competition was always between me and my best friend Moniba, who had beautiful writing and presentation, which the examiners liked, but I knew I could beat her on content. So when we did the end-of-year exams and Malka-e-Noor came first, I was shocked. At home I cried and cried and had to be comforted by my mother.

我七岁的时候，已经常常是班上的第一名。我会帮助班级里其他课业有困难的同学。“马拉拉真是个天才。”同学们常这么说。我也以踊跃参加所有活动而出名--羽毛球、板球、戏剧、手工，甚至唱歌，虽然我唱得不是很好。所以，当玛丽克.努尔来到我们班上时，我并没有太在意。她的名字是“光明女王”的意思，她说她想成为巴基斯坦第一个女性军方领导人。她的母亲是另一所学校的老师，这很少见，因为我们其他人的母亲都不工作。一开始，她在班上有些沉默寡言。班上总是我和我的好朋友莫妮巴在竞争。莫妮巴很会答题，她的字也很美，这在考试时很吃香，但是我知道我的答题内容可以赢过她。所以当期末考结果是玛丽克.努尔得到第一名时，我非常震惊。我回家后哭了又哭，连母亲都来安慰我。

Around that time we moved away from where we had been living on the same street as Moniba to an area where I didn’t have any friends. On our new road there was a girl called Safina, who was a bit younger than me, and we started to play together. She was a pampered girl who had lots of dolls and a shoebox full of jewellery. But she kept eyeing up the pink plastic pretend mobile phone my father had bought me, which was one of the only toys I had. My father was always talking on his mobile so I loved to copy him and pretend to make calls on mine. One day it disappeared.

大约在那个时候，我们搬离了原来和莫妮巴同住的那条街，来到一个完全陌生的地区，在这我没有朋友。新家所处的这条街上，有个女孩名叫萨芬娜，年纪比我小一些，我们慢慢地开始玩在一起。她是个集万千宠爱于一身的女孩，有很多洋娃娃和满满一鞋盒的珠宝，但她却一直很想要父亲送我的那支粉红色塑料玩具手机，那是我唯一的玩具。父亲总是在用手机打电话，所以我也很喜欢拿着我的玩具手机学他讲电话的模样。有一天，我的玩具手机不见了。

A few days later I saw Safina playing with a phone exactly the same as mine. ‘Where did you get that?’ I asked. ‘I bought it in the bazaar, ’ she said.

几天后，我看见萨芬娜拿着一支像极了我的那支玩具手机在玩耍。“你怎么会有？”我问道。“我在市场买的。”她说。