Malala Yousafzai on why educating girls changes everything

The TED Interview

TED

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala Yousafzai has been an international advocate for girls' education since she was 15 years old and was shot by the Taliban for speaking out about girls' education. Now, as a fresh graduate of Oxford University (and job seeking!), she urges us not to forget about the girls who still lack access to a classroom. She describes why learning was crucial to her as a young girl in Pakistan and how the fight for girls' education is inextricably linked with the coronavirus pandemic and recent calls for racial justice. This virtual conversation is part of TED2020, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers. It was recorded July 8, 2020.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:03.0	Hello, I'm Chris Anderson and welcome to the Ted interview, the final episode of this season.
0:17.0	So, I think we all could use the dose of courage these days, and today's guest has it in spades.
0:25.0	In 2012, Malala Yusufzai was thrust into the global spotlight at age 15 when the Taliban attacked and nearly killed her because she'd criticised the group and their opposition to girls' education.
0:39.0	In the years since, Malala has founded the Malala Fund and travelled the world to advocate for girls' rights to education.
0:48.0	In 2014, she became the youngest recipient ever of the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2017, the youngest ever UN Messenger of Peace.
0:55.0	As of this summer, she's also a graduate of Oxford University.
1:00.0	Listening to Malala, I just found her so inspiring, so moving.
1:04.0	There's actually the first public interview she's given in many months.
1:09.0	She explains what the pandemic might mean for girls' education, safety and health around the world.
1:15.0	She underscores the power of working for change at the local, not only the national level.
1:21.0	She also reveals a bit of her regular self, the young woman who felt the pressure of becoming a global icon at age 15 but who can't wait to relax with Netflix.
1:31.0	The activist whose role models include the very girls she speaks for.
1:36.0	My colleague, Whitney Pettington Rodgers, current affairs curator at TED interviewed Malala before a live virtual audience at TED 2020. Here is Whitney.
1:47.0	I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Malala, use the side.
1:52.0	Thank you, Whitney. Thank you so much.
1:54.0	First and foremost, congratulations on your graduation. That is amazing.
1:59.0	You recently tweeted that there will be lots of sleeping, reading and Netflix in your future.
2:04.0	How does it feel to be finished with college? What have you been up to these past couple of weeks?
2:10.0	To be honest, my exams were really long. There were a month long exams and I was just exhausted.
2:17.0	I needed a long, long break. Right now, I am allowing myself. I'm just saying that you are allowed to do this for a bit because you need a bit of rest and a bit of break.
2:26.0	So, so far, it's spending time with family resetting my room because it still looked like a high school girls' room and I was like,
	...

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