In We Are Displaced, Yousafzai and the contributors document war from a civilian perspective. Their experiences demonstrate that most civilians flee violent conflict in a state of panic, and usually do not have access to reliable information or resources to help them. Yousafzai recalls that although her family was educated and lived comfortably in Mingora, they, like the rest of the population, fled in a panic when the government gave them just two days to do so. She remembers the chaos of the evacuation, writing, “The streets were flooded with people piled into cars and hanging out of buses. People were fleeing on motorbikes and trucks, in rickshaws and mule carts, all with the same wide-eyed look of shock” (Location 193).

Other writers have similar stories. Marie Claire remembers how she and her family fled violent militias in Congo, writing, “We spent the first four years of my life living in the bush, literally on the run” (Location 1044). Marie Claire’s family had few resources; she shares that they were often hungry and only knew that they should head south to Zambia to escape the militias. Maria and her family also had to flee as the situation in their Columbian village worsened.