Malala Yousafzai Talks Feminine Schooling, Religion and the Future

In a current assembly with the Muslim Woman editorial staff, I known as Malala Yousafzai “our perpetual Muslim Lady To Watch.” It goes with out saying that the world deserves to regulate her historic strikes this yr, subsequent yr and yearly — however 2024 proves to be a particular one for our ladies’ schooling trailblazer.

Malala is contemporary off the glow of her first govt producer position on the 2023 Oscar-nominated documentary “Stranger on the Gate,” the Los Angeles screening of which I had the respect to average earlier than an viewers of breath-taken Academy members. Like the remainder of us, they noticed the urgency of a narrative about how kindness can remodel hate into not solely love, however change — main Malala to the long-lasting digital camera second on Oscars evening when she flawlessly instructed Jimmy Kimmel, “I solely discuss peace.”

Along with her well-known restraint, she alchemized the popular culture momentum to place the eye proper again to the place she’s at all times centered it: the rights of ladies and ladies in Afghanistan. Because the nation faces a dire disaster within the freedom of schooling and motion for its most weak inhabitants, she’s main the Malala Fund to place faces to the numbers and names to the tales. She commemorated Worldwide Girls’s Day 2024 by main a high-level panel on gender apartheid on the Worldwide Peace Institute, and she or he’s decided to maintain the problem within the international highlight.

In her first interview for Muslim Woman, Malala kicks off the week of our international marketing campaign for Muslim Girls’s Day by giving a timeless voice to this yr’s theme: religion. From fearlessly standing towards adversity to empowering the “tons of of hundreds of Malalas on the market,” there might be little question why she’s my, and numerous others’, perpetual Muslim Lady To Watch.

AMANI: Your basis, Malala Fund, has been instrumental in supporting schooling initiatives worldwide. What do you suppose must be our international priorities within the yr to come back?

MALALA YOUSAFZAI: With so many crises impacting our world — battle, local weather change, poverty, discrimination — it may be difficult to know the place to lend help. However for me, schooling will at all times be a precedence as a result of I do know it has the potential to drive progress on all fronts.

I’m so happy with the work that Malala Fund has completed within the final decade to help native schooling activists who’re main initiatives and campaigns to assist extra ladies full 12 years of faculty. We belief that they know what works finest for his or her communities and be taught a lot from their modern options. I’m additionally glad that the work these activists do on the nationwide stage is supported and complemented by Malala Fund’s international advocacy initiatives, together with efforts to safe extra and higher sources for ladies’ schooling and authorized frameworks to help ladies’ rights.

To assist safe a greater future, we’d like everybody to remain knowledgeable, keep resilient and find artistic methods to take collective motion on the problems they perceive and care about most. Malala Fund has nice sources on its web site in case any readers are taken with studying extra about our work and methods to help our unimaginable activist companions.

Relating to the documentary “Stranger on the Gate,” you stated, “It is a story in regards to the energy of forgiveness, redemption, kindness, compassion. I imagine in these values.” How do you suppose this performs into the social points most impacting Muslims right this moment?

The primary time I watched “Stranger on the Gate” I bear in mind I used to be in my front room watching it on my laptop computer along with my husband, and I used to be fully moved and impressed by the story. It’s actually tough to handle points like extremism and violence as a result of, oftentimes, the explanation behind the violence and the extremism is the dehumanisation of a sure particular person, a bunch of individuals, a non secular group, or an ethnic group. However, on the identical time, after we join with folks, we see them in individual or by way of our TV screens, we realise that they’re identical to us. They’ve the identical moments of pleasure and unhappiness. They’ve the identical household life. They share meals collectively. They’ve traditions. It’s then that we realise that we’re all people.

It’s actually tough to handle points like extremism and violence as a result of, oftentimes, the explanation behind the violence and the extremism is the dehumanisation of a sure particular person, a bunch of individuals, a non secular group, or an ethnic group.

I feel this understanding may also help us construct compassion in terms of a few of right this moment’s greatest crises, just like the tragedy of what’s occurring in Gaza proper now. One of many issues that has develop into seen to me is how readily the media, and plenty of leaders, have dehumanised Palestinians or diminished them to statistics, which makes it simpler for some to look away from the atrocities escalating each day. I’ve tried to make use of my social media platforms, and notably my Instagram tales, in current months to attract consideration to and centre the views of the exceptional folks – particularly kids – in Gaza who’re dwelling by way of this horror each day. I particularly admire girls like Plestia and Bisan – the courageous younger people who find themselves documenting this disaster in real-time on social media and doing a lot to humanise the plight of the people and heroes round them.

Our theme for Muslim Girls’s Day 2024 is Iman, or religion. How has religion performed a task in your advocacy, particularly within the face of world challenges?

To start with, a really completely happy Muslim Girls’s Day to all of the readers of Muslim Woman. It’s a nice second for us to come back collectively and rejoice our shared religion, values and achievements. When it comes to my very own religion, I grew up in a Muslim nation and a Muslim household, dedicated to the teachings of Islam, so religion has at all times been a giant a part of my life — and it continues to be so right this moment.

Once I take into consideration how my religion performs a task in my advocacy, two issues stand out. First, is the constant messages of avoiding dangerous acts, and of being trustworthy, simply, and truthful in how we deal with others. I began studying the Quran with translation at round age 10 and do not forget that it had these highly effective messages about doing good and being a virtuous individual. They made a giant impression on me then and have stayed with me ever since.

Islam says that you simply can’t keep ignorant, that you need to go and search information — regardless of how onerous it’s, or how far you need to journey.

The second factor, which drives a few of my activism, is to make it possible for we don’t enable others to misuse faith to do hurt. We see in Afghanistan how the Taliban is exploiting a twisted interpretation of Islam to implement its gender apartheid regime. My religion guides me to know that it’s improper to intentionally and systematically oppress women and girls — not letting them get a haircut, see a physician, or go for a stroll within the park. Afghanistan isn’t the one Muslim nation on this planet, however it’s the solely nation on this planet that stops ladies from going to high school. What I do know, as a practising Muslim, is that schooling is the truth is obligatory in Islam. Islam says that you simply can’t keep ignorant, that you need to go and search information — regardless of how onerous it’s, or how far you need to journey.

Are you able to share with our readers among the most memorable moments or encounters you’ve had whereas championing schooling rights on the worldwide stage?

I’m very fortunate as a result of there’s been fairly just a few standout moments. Talking on the United Nations for the first time once I was 16 and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize have been each wonderful experiences. Final yr, I additionally obtained to spend time with Graça Machel once I gave the Nelson Mandela Lecture in South Africa. There was a quiet second the day earlier than the lecture when just a few of us — an activist, a lawyer, a younger Parliamentarian, all girls — sat collectively in a room reflecting on the state of affairs in Afghanistan. As Graça shared her personal experiences as an activist in southern Africa throughout racial apartheid, we have been all captivated. She is 78 years outdated, however I’ll always remember her unimaginable vitality for our shared causes, and the solidarity she provided us throughout generations.

However I’ve to say that the very best instances are at all times once I meet ladies once I journey. Within the final yr alone by way of my advocacy work with Malala Fund, I met ladies in Brazil, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa, in addition to ladies evacuated from Afghanistan. They’re at all times hopeful and optimistic regardless of their difficult circumstances. Women like Thuézia, whom I met in Brazil, stated: “I need all of us to develop into medical doctors, nurses, attorneys, journalists, and activists.”

How do you stability your international activism along with your private life and aspirations, notably as a younger lady navigating each private and non-private spheres?

Typically the work we do as advocates can really feel actually heavy and actually private. I at all times make it possible for I find time to chill out, which frequently consists of sending memes or reels to my buddies, or studying — I really like studying. And I’m now making an attempt just a few totally different sports activities, like badminton, pickleball and golf. I’m really getting fairly good at golf however I’ve to confess that I’m not a really humble winner — my poor husband has to just accept me as champion. I really like cricket, after all, however I’m actually unhealthy at it so I simply keep on with watching.

Together with your continued efforts to finish gender apartheid, particularly for Afghan girls and ladies, what are your hopes and aspirations for the panorama of schooling and gender equality?

One factor that we’re working very onerous on in the intervening time is to verify the worldwide neighborhood has the authorized means to carry the Taliban to account for his or her barbaric therapy of women and girls by codifying gender apartheid as against the law towards humanity.

We want all governments to take a stand and recognise what’s occurring in Afghanistan, and Afghan women and girls need to know that world leaders have their backs. My hope is that in the end, this helps to construct worldwide stress on the Taliban and will get Afghan ladies again into faculty the place they’ll be taught and fulfil their potential.

We want all governments to take a stand and recognise what’s occurring in Afghanistan, and Afghan women and girls need to know that world leaders have their backs.

However I’m equally anxious about headlines from elsewhere around the globe – from colleges being bombed in Gaza to college students being kidnapped in Nigeria. Faculties should at all times be a spot for youngsters to be taught freely, shielded from concern, violence and discrimination. So we should proceed to fight for consideration and sources for varsity kids all around the globe, in many alternative international locations and contexts, and never hand over on our aim of making certain that each one kids can get pleasure from a secure schooling.

How do you suppose your journey has developed through the years and would you say there are any important adjustments from Malala then vs. Malala now?

You’re proper that it has been fairly a journey up to now! Maybe the obvious solutions are that I finished highschool and graduated from college, travelled to greater than 30 international locations, obtained married, and began Malala Fund.

I used to be simply 11 years outdated when extremists took management of our city in Swat Valley and stated ladies may not go to high school. So my activism was pushed primarily by my dedication to finish my very own schooling and get an opportunity to reside out my goals. I wished that for my buddies too, which was why I began to talk out. Like most younger ladies I used to be filled with ardour, ambition and vitality.

I feel the largest distinction between Malala then and Malala now could be that I’m extra of a believer within the energy of collective motion.

At the moment, I nonetheless have the identical ardour and dedication to get the thousands and thousands of women around the globe who’re out of faculty again into their lecture rooms. However during the last 10 years I’ve come to grasp that whereas change can start with one individual, nobody can change the world on their very own — not me, and never even a president or prime minister. To construct a world the place each little one has entry to 12 years of high quality schooling, we should be a part of forces. So, I feel the largest distinction between Malala then and Malala now could be that I’m extra of a believer within the energy of collective motion. And I do know that if we match the braveness and resolve of women, observe their lead, and fund their work, the potential for progress is limitless.

What’s the very best piece of recommendation you may have obtained from somebody that has saved you motivated within the work that you simply do?

Greater than ten years in the past following my assault, I bear in mind my dad saying to me that activism isn’t about you, it’s about others. I actually preferred that sentiment, and it’s one thing I’ve at all times saved in thoughts as I’ve continued my work. And fortunately, when you’re surrounded by ladies and advocates with such sturdy convictions, you’re feeling reinvigorated to hold on the fight for a world the place each lady can be taught and lead.

As a task mannequin for numerous younger ladies worldwide, what recommendation do you may have for Muslim Woman readers aspiring to make a distinction of their communities, particularly within the face of adversity?’

Given what I find out about them, I don’t suppose Muslim Woman readers want my recommendation! They’re so good and passionate, and so they already know what to say. So I’d encourage them to belief of their voice and their concepts and to talk out in the event that they really feel that one thing isn’t proper.

Once I was a youngster, I wrote weblog posts, used media interviews, and took part in peaceable marches as my main types of activism; right this moment, younger folks have all of these instruments and even larger platforms like social media to do their activism. Actually, Malala Fund created a digital platform in order that ladies’ experiences might be heard around the globe. In our digital publication, known as Meeting, younger girls can get tales or concepts printed about their lives or the causes that matter to them.

Malala Fund is a nonprofit organisation working for a world the place all ladies can be taught and lead. Malala Fund advocates for sources and coverage adjustments wanted to provide all ladies a secondary schooling, invests in native schooling activists and companions, and amplifies the voices of women fighting for change. You possibly can be taught extra about their work at malala.org.