Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Grace Swift
Prof. Kane
English 115TTh1
24 September 2019
E1.1
Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 within Mingora, Pakistan. At the time, girls were
allowed to attend school in Pakistan and her father ran a girls’ school so Malala had the
opportunity to attend school and get an education. However, in 2008, the Taliban took control
and announced that they would no longer allow girls to attend school. Malala decided to fight for
her right to attend school and began speaking out against these new policies. Due to the fact that
she spoke out against the Taliban and brought attention to the violation of rights in that area, she
became a target and was shot in the head in 2012. For her own protection and treatment, she was
moved to England and once she finally recovered she remained in the United Kingdom. She has
continued to speak and advocate for womens’ rights to education and won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 2014, created a charity to help young girls get important opportunities, and currently attends
the University of Oxford, studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Although Malala still
would have been successful in other ways if these incidents and decisions had happened
differently, she wouldn’t have succeeded in becoming a women’s education activist if she hadn’t
spoken out against these unfair laws and if she had given up after being targeted and shot by the
Taliban.
The first choice that Malala had was whether or not she wanted to speak out against what
she and others believed was wrong even though there was a large Taliban presence. She likely
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knew that she would be a target of the group and their violent actions if she publicly denounced
their decisions, however, she still chose to do it. Malala’s first speech began to circulate, shortly
before the girls’ schools were officially shut down in Pakistan and as time went on, she began
blogging for BBC and appearing on television, so many began to follow her efforts for
education. However, if Malala had decided that fighting for women’s right to education had been
too dangerous her life would be very different. When asked, “What would your life be like right
now if you were living in Pakistan without an education?” in an interview with National
Geographic, Malala responded, “I would have two or three children. I’m fortunate that I’m 18
and I’m still not married.When you don’t get an education, your life is very much controlled by
others,” (Yousafzai). Within this quote, Malala gives a glimpse of what her life would be like had
she not advocated for women’s rights to education and eventually moved to the UK.
Unfortunately, this is the reality of life for many girls and women in some parts of the world who
are unable to get an education and, as a result, they are unable or disallowed from getting a job
so they get married and have children. A major factor of this problem is the culture within those
countries because some cultures stress marriage and childbearing for women rather than
education and work, however, some women strive for a different life.
Many people would easily give up their activism if it meant life or death, Malala on the
other hand faced it and fought it. After she was shot in the head in 2012, she went through many
major surgeries and after many months of recovery she spoke at the United Nations. By this
point, Malala had already made an impact and inspired many to protest and fight for girls’
education. Even after an exhausting recovery and life and death situation, Malala still moved
onward and continued speaking about the topic to a broader audience. In 2014, Malala went on
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to win a Nobel Peace Prize at age seventeen, making her the youngest person to have won the
prize. Within her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Malala said, “I had two options. One was to
remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose
the second one. I decided to speak up,” (Yousafzai). Malala explains that she felt as if she only
had two options to choose from and both ended with death. She, unlike others, decided to try to
make a difference and fight for something she believed in before she was killed. The difference
is, Malala, like other famous activists, faced death and still continued to fight and speak for what
is important.