Speaker 1: But terrorists tried to stop us, and it takes me
Speaker 1: and my friends who are here today on our school
Speaker 1: bus in two thousand and twelve. But neither their ideas
Speaker 1: nor their bullets could win. We survived, and since that
Speaker 1: day our voices have grown louder and louder. I tell
Speaker 1: my story not because it is unique, but because it
Speaker 1: is not. It is the story of many girls, that is,
Speaker 1: Malala Yosef said. When she was just fifteen, Malala was
Speaker 1: shot by the Taliban because she had dared to speak
Speaker 1: out on behalf of girls education. She went on to
Speaker 1: win a Nobel Peace Prize, becoming at eight seventeen, the
Speaker 1: youngest ever Nobel Laureate. I'm a land Revere and this
Speaker 1: is Seneca's one Women to Hear. We are bringing you
Speaker 1: one hundred of the world's most inspiring and history making
Speaker 1: women you need to hear. In two thousand and twelve,
Speaker 1: Malala yosef Sized town in Pakistan was under the control
Speaker 1: of the Taliban. Girls were told not to attend school.
Speaker 1: Malala spoke out publicly in opposition to the Taliban. A
Speaker 1: girl with a book and a pen is a frightening proposition.
Speaker 1: Education for girls was a threat a challenge to the
Speaker 1: forces of extremism and what they stood for. Malala barely
Speaker 1: survived the attack, whisked away to England for medical treatment.
Speaker 1: She not only lived, but kept up the fight for
Speaker 1: girls education by establishing the Malala Fund. This year, Malala
Speaker 1: graduated from Oxford University, and her Malala Fund continues to
Speaker 1: advocate for the hundred and thirty million girls around the
Speaker 1: world who are still not in school. The Fund's goal
Speaker 1: is to ensure that every girl has access to twelve
Speaker 1: years of free, safe, and quality education. Her inspiration in
Speaker 1: this work is her father, Ziaden Yosefsai, an educator who
Speaker 1: was determined to give his daughter every opportunity a boy
Speaker 1: would have. The Malala Funds work is even more urgent today.
Speaker 1: The organization's research indicates that twenty million girls who have
Speaker 1: left school because of COVID may never go back to
Speaker 1: the classroom, and the and is working to ensure that
Speaker 1: girl's education is a key consideration in post pandemic rebuilding.
Speaker 1: At the end of this episode will tell you how
Speaker 1: you can help the Malala Fund, But first let's hear
Speaker 1: Malala in her own words her speech when she accepted
Speaker 1: the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand and fourteen. Listen
Speaker 1: and learn why Malala Yosufsai is one of Seneca's on
Speaker 1: women to hear this Mala Rahman raheem in the name
Speaker 1: of God, the most merciful, the most beneficient. Your Majesty's,
Speaker 1: your Royal Highness is distinguished members of the Norwegian Noble Committee. Yes,
Speaker 1: sisters and brothers. Today is the day of great happiness
Speaker 1: for me. I'm humbled that the Noble Committee has selected
Speaker 1: me for this precious award. Thank you to everyone for
Speaker 1: your continued support and love. Thank you for the letters
Speaker 1: and cards that I still receive from all around the world.
Speaker 1: Your kind and encouraging words strengthens and inspires me. I
Speaker 1: would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love.
Speaker 1: Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings
Speaker 1: and for letting me fly. Yeah, thank you to my
Speaker 1: mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always
Speaker 1: speak the truth, which we strongly believe is the true
Speaker 1: message of Islam. And also thank you to all my
Speaker 1: wonderful teachers who inspired me to believe in myself and
Speaker 1: be brave. I'm proud, well, in fact, I'm very proud
Speaker 1: to be the first Pashtoon, the first Pakistani and the
Speaker 1: youngest person to receive this award. M along with that.
Speaker 1: Along with that, I'm pretty certain, but I'm also the
Speaker 1: first recipient of the Noble Peace Prize who still fights
Speaker 1: with her younger brothers. I want there to be piece everywhere,
Speaker 1: but my brothers and I are still working on that.
Speaker 1: I'm also honored to receive this award together with Calasti,
Speaker 1: who has been a champion for children's rights for a
Speaker 1: long time, twice as long in fact that I have
Speaker 1: been alive. I'm proud that we can work together. We
Speaker 1: can work together and show the world that an engine
Speaker 1: in a Pakistani they can work together and achieve their
Speaker 1: goals of children's rights. Dead brothers and sisters. I was
Speaker 1: named after the inspirational Malala of me one, who is
Speaker 1: the personal in John of Arc. The word Malala means
Speaker 1: grief stricken, said, but in order to learn some happiness
Speaker 1: to it. My grandfather would always call me Malala the
Speaker 1: happiest skill in the world. And today I'm very happy
Speaker 1: that we are together fighting for an important cause. This award,
Speaker 1: it's not just for me, It is for those forgotten
Speaker 1: children who want education. It is for those frightened children
Speaker 1: who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who
Speaker 1: want change. I'm here to stand up for their rights,
Speaker 1: to raise their voice. It is not time to pity them.
Speaker 1: It is not time to pity them. It is time
Speaker 1: to take action. So it becomes the last time, the
Speaker 1: last time. So it becomes the last time that we
Speaker 1: see a child deprived of education. Yeah, I have found
Speaker 1: that people describe me in many different ways. Some people
Speaker 1: call me the girl who was shot by the Taliban,
Speaker 1: and some the girl who fought for her rights. Some
Speaker 1: people called my lob a nobel laureate. Now, however, my
Speaker 1: brother still called me that annoying bossy sister. As far
Speaker 1: as I know, I'm just a committed, an even stubborn
Speaker 1: person who wants to see every child getting quality education,
Speaker 1: who was to see women having equal rights, and who
Speaker 1: wants peace in every corner of the world. Education is
Speaker 1: one of the blessings of life and one of its necessities.
Speaker 1: That has been my experience during the seventeen years of
Speaker 1: my life. In my Paradise home, Swath, I always loved
Speaker 1: learning and discovering new things. I remember when my friends
Speaker 1: and I would decorate our hands with Hannah on special occasions,
Speaker 1: and instead of drawing flowers and patrons, you would paint
Speaker 1: on ends with mathematical formulas and equations. We had a
Speaker 1: thirst for education. We had a thirst for education because
Speaker 1: our future was right there in that classroom. We would
Speaker 1: sit and learn and read together. We love to wear
Speaker 1: neat and tidy school uniforms, and we would sit there
Speaker 1: with big dreams in our eyes. We wanted to make
Speaker 1: our parents proud and prove that we could also excelin
Speaker 1: our studies and achieve those goals which some people think
Speaker 1: only boys can. But things did not remain the same.
Speaker 1: When I was in swath We, it was a place
Speaker 1: of tourism and beauty suddenly changed into a place of terrorism.
Speaker 1: I was just ten that more than four schools were destroyed,
Speaker 1: women were flogged, people were killed. There are beautiful dreams
Speaker 1: turned into nightmares. Education went from being a right to
Speaker 1: being a crime. Girls were stopped from going to school.
Speaker 1: When my world suddenly changed, my priorities changed too. I
Speaker 1: had two options. One was to remain silent and wait
Speaker 1: to be killed, and the second was to speak up
Speaker 1: and then be killed. I chose the second one. I
Speaker 1: decided to speak of We could not just stand by
Speaker 1: and see those injustices of the terrorists denying our rights,
Speaker 1: ruthlessly killing people and misusing the name of Islam. We
Speaker 1: decided to raise our voice and tell them, have you
Speaker 1: not learned? Have you not learned that in the Holy
Speaker 1: Puran Alas says, if you kill one person, it is
Speaker 1: as if you kill the whole humanity? Do you not
Speaker 1: know that Muhammad please be upon him, the prophet of mercy.
Speaker 1: He says, do not harm yourself or others? And do
Speaker 1: you not know with the very first word of the
Speaker 1: Holy Quran is the word akra, which means red. The
Speaker 1: terrorists try to stop us and attacked me and my
Speaker 1: friends who are here today on our school bus in
Speaker 1: two thou and twelve, but neither their ideas nor their
Speaker 1: bullets could win. We survived, and since that day our
Speaker 1: voices have grown louder and louder. Yeah, Seneca's one hundred
Speaker 1: Women to Hear will be back after this short break.
Speaker 1: I tell my story not because it is unique, but
Speaker 1: because it is not. It is the story of many
Speaker 1: girls today. I tell their stories too. I have brought
Speaker 1: with me some of my sisters from Pakistan, from Nigeria,
Speaker 1: and from Syria who shared this story. My brave sisters
Speaker 1: Chase and Kinda, who are also shot that day on
Speaker 1: our school bus, but they have not stopped learning. In
Speaker 1: My brave sister kind of som Row who went through
Speaker 1: severe abuse and extreme violence. Even her brother was killed,
Speaker 1: but she did not succumb. Also, my sister's here whom
Speaker 1: I have met during my Melana Fant campaign. My sixteen
Speaker 1: year old courageous sister mos Zoon from Syria who now
Speaker 1: lives in Jordan as a refugee, and she goes from
Speaker 1: ten to ten encouraging girls and boys to learn. And
Speaker 1: my sister Amina from the north of Nigeria will bo
Speaker 1: go around, threatens and stops girls and even kidnaps girls
Speaker 1: just for wanting to go to school. Do I appear
Speaker 1: as one girl? Do I appear as one girl? One
Speaker 1: person who's five ft two inches tall? If you include
Speaker 1: my high heels, it means I'm five ft only. I'm
Speaker 1: not a lone voice. I'm not a lone voice. I
Speaker 1: am Many, i am Mallalah, but I'm also shah Ziah.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of, I'm kind of som Raw, I'm Mozoon,
Speaker 1: I am Amina, I am those sixties six million girls
Speaker 1: who are deprived of education. And today I'm not raising
Speaker 1: my voice, it is the voice of those sixty six
Speaker 1: million girls. M. Sometimes people like to ask me why
Speaker 1: should girls go to school? Why is it important for them?
Speaker 1: But I think the more important question is why shouldn't
Speaker 1: they Why shouldn't they have this right to go to school?
Speaker 1: M dead brothers and sisters. Today, in half of the
Speaker 1: world we see rapid progress and development. However, there are
Speaker 1: many countries where millions still suffer from the very old
Speaker 1: problems of war, poverty, and injustice. We still see conflicts
Speaker 1: in which innocent people lose their lives and children become orphans.
Speaker 1: We see many people becoming refugees in Syria, Jazza, in Iraq,
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, we see families being killed in suicide attacks
Speaker 1: and bomb blasts. Many children in Africa do not have
Speaker 1: access to education because of poverty, and as I said,
Speaker 1: we still see we still see girls who have no
Speaker 1: freedom to go to school in the north of Nigeria.
Speaker 1: Many children in countries like Pakistan and in India. Last mentioned,
Speaker 1: many children, especially in India and Pakistan, are the part
Speaker 1: of their right to education because of social tables, or
Speaker 1: they have been forced into child marriage or into child labor.
Speaker 1: One of my very good school friends, the same age
Speaker 1: as me, who have who has always been bald and confident,
Speaker 1: girl dreamed of becoming a doctor, but her dream remained
Speaker 1: a dream. At the age of twelve, she was forced
Speaker 1: to get married and then soon she had a son.
Speaker 1: She had a child when she herself was a child
Speaker 1: only fourteen. I know that she could have been a
Speaker 1: very good doctor, but she couldn't because she was a girl.
Speaker 1: Her story is why I dedicate the Noble Thas Prize
Speaker 1: money into the Malala Fund to help give girls quality
Speaker 1: education everywhere anywhere in the world and to raise their voices.
Speaker 1: The first place this funding will go to is where
Speaker 1: my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan, especially in
Speaker 1: my home of Swath and shang La. In my own village,
Speaker 1: there is still no secondary school for girls, and it
Speaker 1: is my wish and my commitment and now my challenge
Speaker 1: to build one so that my friends and my sisters
Speaker 1: can go there to school and get quality education and
Speaker 1: they get this opportunity to fulfill their dreams. This is
Speaker 1: where I will begin, but it is not where I
Speaker 1: will stop. I will continue this fight until I see
Speaker 1: every child, every child in school, their brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: Great people who brought change, like Martin Luther King and
Speaker 1: Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Aung San Sushi once stood
Speaker 1: here on this stage. I hope the steps that Kills
Speaker 1: and I have taken so far and we'll take on
Speaker 1: this journey will also bring change, lasting change. My great
Speaker 1: hope is that this will be the last time. This
Speaker 1: will be the last time we must fight for education.
Speaker 1: Let's solve this once and for all. We have already
Speaker 1: taken many steps. Now it is time to take a leap.
Speaker 1: It is not time to tell the world leaders to
Speaker 1: realize how important education is. They already know it. Their
Speaker 1: own children are in good schools. Now it is time
Speaker 1: to call them to take action for the rest of
Speaker 1: the world's children. We asked the world leaders to unite
Speaker 1: and make education their top priority. Fifteen years ago, the
Speaker 1: world leaders decided on a set of global goals, the
Speaker 1: Millennium Development Goals. In the years that have followed, we
Speaker 1: have seen some progress. The number of children out of
Speaker 1: school has been halved. As last said, However, the world
Speaker 1: focused only on primary education, and progress did not reach everyone.
Speaker 1: In year two thousand and fifteen, representatives from all around
Speaker 1: the world will meet in the United Nations to set
Speaker 1: the next set of goals, sustainable development Goals. This will
Speaker 1: set the world's ambition for the next generations. The world
Speaker 1: can no longer accept that. The world can no longer
Speaker 1: accept that basic education is enough. Why do leaders accept
Speaker 1: that for children in developing countries only basic literacy is sufficient.
Speaker 1: When their own children do homework in algebra, mathematics, science,
Speaker 1: and physics. Leaders must seize this opportunity to guarantee a free, quality,
Speaker 1: primary and secondary education for every child. Some will say
Speaker 1: this is impractical, or too expensive, or too hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe even impossible, But it is time. The world
Speaker 1: thing is bigger. Your sisters and brothers, the so called
Speaker 1: world of adults may understand it, but we children don't.
Speaker 1: Why is it that countries which we call strong are
Speaker 1: so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in
Speaker 1: bringing peace. Why is it? Why is it that giving
Speaker 1: guns is so easy but giving books is so hard?
Speaker 1: Why is it why is it that making thanks is
Speaker 1: so easy but building schools is so hard. We are
Speaker 1: living in the modern age, and we believe that nothing
Speaker 1: is impossible we have reached the moon years ago, and
Speaker 1: maybe will soon learned on Mars. Then, in this twenty
Speaker 1: one century, we must be able to give every child
Speaker 1: quality education. Your sisters and brothers, dear fellow children. We
Speaker 1: must work, not wait. Not just the politicians and the
Speaker 1: world leaders. We all need to contribute, me you, we
Speaker 1: It is our duty. Let us become the first generation
Speaker 1: to decide to be the last. Let us become the
Speaker 1: first generation that decides to be the last that sees
Speaker 1: empty classrooms, lost childhoods, and wasted potentials. Let this be
Speaker 1: the last time that a gun or a boy spends
Speaker 1: their childhood in a factory. Let this be the last
Speaker 1: time that the gun is forced into early child marriage.
Speaker 1: Let this be the last time that a child loses
Speaker 1: life in war. At this be the last time that
Speaker 1: we see a child out of school. Let this end
Speaker 1: with us. Let's begin this ending together today, right here,
Speaker 1: right now. Let's begin this ending now. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you. What an inspiration. Imagine the courage of a
Speaker 1: girl who took a bullet for education. There's so much
Speaker 1: to learn from Malala. Here are some things that really
Speaker 1: resonated with me. First, Malala asks us all to be
Speaker 1: bold Now, she says, is the time to guarantee a free,
Speaker 1: quality primary and secondary education for every child. And to
Speaker 1: those who say this is too expensive or too hard,
Speaker 1: she replies that we have to think bigger to spend
Speaker 1: as much on books and schools as we do on
Speaker 1: guns and war. Second, Malala also shows us the power
Speaker 1: of one voice. Her words continue to have the force
Speaker 1: to change the world because she is speaking, in fact,
Speaker 1: for millions. Finally, Malala reminds us that it is the
Speaker 1: duty of each of us to help bring about a
Speaker 1: better tomorrow in whatever way we can. The Malala Fund
Speaker 1: is doing that by supporting local education heroes, as well
Speaker 1: as research and advocacy. You can help by donating at
Speaker 1: Malala dot org. Tune in next Tuesday to hear about
Speaker 1: our next featured woman and discover why she's one of
Speaker 1: Seneca's Women to Hear. Seneca's One with Women to Hear
Speaker 1: is a collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio with support from founding partner p And.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard on the show, rate
Speaker 1: and review it on Apple Podcasts, we hope you'll join
Speaker 1: us for our next episode of one hundred Women to
Speaker 1: hear where we can all listen, learn and get inspired.
Speaker 1: Have a great day.