In Washington, Malala Makes Passionate Plea for Women's Rights

 

 

Tears welled up in the eyes of some women listening to 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai speak to a crowd at the World Bank today. Her audience were deeply touched by her story and courage as she advocated for girl’s education.  

“I’m proud to be a girl because we girls can change the world,” Malala told her mesmerized audience. I felt a chill run through my body at her strong words and her determination to pursue the struggle for the education of girls like her, banned from education.  

One year ago, on October 9, 2012, Malala, the daughter of a school owner, almost lost her life when she was shot in the head by an extremist Talibani as she rode a bus home from school in Pakistan. The Taliban movement in her remote valley in Pakistan had banned education of girls in her region. 

Malala survived, but her face remains partly paralyzed from the point-blank range shooting. Her painful experience, at such a young age, turned her into a brave, global symbol of peaceful activism, and she became the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

At an hour-long debate with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Malala spoke with passion, boldness, and confidence. She pleaded for collective work to help girls win their right to education.  

Not many of us have to risk our lives to go to school. In several conservative regions in the Middle East where I come from, many girls banned by their culture and families from education, and are married off at a young age, have not walked the path Malala took. They submitted to their fate, and lived a bitterly painful life. Other women however, are defying their cultures to fight for their right to drive, to enter the labour force, and to resist child marriage. It is not easy for women to extract their rights in a society that uses and twists religion to persecute women. Despite the difficulties, women’s movements in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa have made wide strides.  

Today, Masood Ahmed, Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, spoke to reporters at the IMF about the importance of women’s participation in the labor force in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. He said the female labour force participation was low in the MENA region, actually, the gap between male and female labour force participation there remains the widest in the world, and has grave economic implications. He said policies can make a difference by raising women’s educational attainment and benefits for working parents, reducing gender wage gaps, and supporting women’s independent mobility and equal opportunity in employment.  

“I believe in the power of the wisdom of women. I believe when we walk together, it will be easy to achieve our goals,” Malala, wearing a black head scarf and traditional Pakistani dress, said, surrounded by applause and admiration in Washington, D.C. She is in the United States to promote her book titled “I Am Malala”, written with foreign correspondent Christina Lamb.

 

Malala wanted to be a doctor, but after her shooting, she wants to be a politician.

“If I become a politician, I can help make a tomorrow where there are no more cases of people being shot,” she said.

Malala announced the creation of the Malala Fund to help educate girls, to which immediately Kim donated $200,000 from the World Bank.

"Now millions of girls are raising their voice...but we need to work hard  and to work together," Malala said.