Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban because of her campaign for girls education, has spoken at the premiere of a film about her life. He Named Me Malala tells Yousafzai’s story through the lens of her family life and her relationship with her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, in particular.
Asked what she would say to inspire young girls to be courageous, the 18 year old Nobel Peace Prize-winning women’s rights activist answered: “If you really want to see change in society, if you want to challenge all the difficulties that are present and that stop you from being yourself, then you need to come out and speak up… Do not wait for someone else. It’s you who can really bring the change.”
The film’s director, Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth) told the audience that he asked himself if he was as good a father as Ziauddin Yousafzai. “It’s every day an effort to be a good father and to be a good mum,” Malala’s dad replied, explaining that he is often asked about parenting in a patriarchal society. “Don’t ask me what I did,” he says, “rather ask me what I did not do. I did not clip her wings.”