Malala, it's such a privilege to meet you, thank you for giving us some time.
Thank you for your time.
With your first book, I Am Malala, obviously you were telling
your story and with this new book, We Are Displaced, it's a communal story.
You do talk about yourself but you also introduce us to several other young
girls from around the world. You all have very, very specific stories to tell,
but I wondered whether there was anything that actually united all of you together?
All the stories that I share in We Are Displaced are the stories of
young girls who have been displaced. And we often hear about these young girls
and these displaced people but we never hear from them and my goal was that this
is an opportunity that we hear from these girls in their own words.
There is something extraordinary actually about reading each of the individual stories
that there is this strength of character and resolve to survive actually
throughout each of their stories. I wondered where that comes from and you
will know from your own story where that resolve came from.
I think the strength that I see in these refugee girls is inspiring and it's something that you
feel like they were in a situation where they were about to shatter and
give up or they gained so much strength that they said that nothing can defeat
them and they can overcome any barrier. And the journeys that they have taken
you know going on a bus with strangers jumping into these boats with
people they have not seen before, putting their lives at risk, do not know if they
will reach the place that they dream of, a nice beach, a place where there is
peace, a place where they can get their education or get a job. Would they
ever get to that place or not? And the fact that they cannot stay in
their home because there is bombing, their lives are at risk, they
have lost their parents, there are people who are threatening their
lives. So all I see is this courage among these girls.
There's a very striking image quite early on in your story; when you were packing to leave your
home you gathered together a collection of books which you put together in a
bag and you were told you couldn't take that bag with you, there was not enough
room so you were very upset and had to leave those books behind. I wanted first of all
if you could tell me what was so important
for you about those books for you personally.
That was my schoolbag and those
were my schoolbooks and I just did not want to miss out on anything. I wanted to
continue my education, continue learning and just continue touching the books
just to feel like I still have access to the power of education. And it's also
important for girls, especially in communities where otherwise they would
be kept inside their houses. And there are so many external barriers so the
only way out for girls is to get an education, you know, get a job, become
independent, speak out for themselves, protect them from early child marriages,
child trafficking. So education in a way is not just learning but also a
protection for girls and in an empowerment for girls. So for me I
just said I want to be close to my books but my mom said no you know this is time
that we are leaving our homes, we are going to a place, we don't know if we
will get there or not, so pack some clothes and some shoes and that's it.
In fact when you returned home the first thing you did was to go upstairs and check
that the books were still there!
I went and I was checking my bag and in the books
were all there and I was so happy because I did not want to miss out on my school
education. As soon as I came back I said I'll continue reading the same books.
Now of course you're in the UK at University, at Oxford. I wonder what it's like, having
known how precious it was, that small bag of books, to now be able to walk into a
bookshop or a university library and see that huge array of books.
Yeah I'm so grateful every day, there are so many libraries, every college has a library
then they're like university libraries, you can literally find any book there.
So I'm just so grateful. I always dreamed about getting into Oxford University and
you know finally I'm here it's a prestigious and great institution and I
I'm just so grateful for it.
You also mention in the book that when it
became clear that you and your family were going to have to leave Swat Valley you
you cried and you say that you did that despite not normally being a very
emotional person. I was quite struck by that idea because you do have this
strength of character and in fact you share that with the other girls in your
new book. But I wondered whether everything you've been through, has that
sort of strengthened that resolve of character or encountering other girls
and similar stories has that helped you to sort of tap into the
emotions again for what you've been through.
To be honest it's a mix of emotions.
You know you hear from these young girls and they inspire
you because of their courage. You know one girl is forcing to get married at
the age of 14 and and she runs away and she protects herself from that. Another
girl is crossing the borders or another girl sees her mother being killed in
front of her and she's still not giving up and is studying in the U.S. wanting
to become a nurse. So you know these are just so powerful and inspiring
stories, it is emotional you know, it does make you cry, does bring tears into your
eyes. But it makes your heart even stronger. I'm just
getting inspired from these girls. I have my own journey as well but when you are
in that situation, you know, you have so many other difficulties and so many
other challenges that you just forget about crying, you just forget about tears
and you forget about you know becoming weak and just you know you have so many
other things to worry about.
You mentioned there about inspiration. Of
course so many people have been inspired by your story not least people like
Michelle Obama and people around the world and I wondered who you got inspiration from?
I have many inspirations like from Martin Luther King,
to Nelson Mandela, to Benazir Bhutto. And there's so many incredible people
in the history that inspire us. But the people who inspire me mostly and
deeply are the girls who I meet. You know the girls I've met in Iraq, in Nigeria,
in Jordan and Lebanon, in Brazil; these stories are so inspiring. And some of the
stories I have mentioned in my book which will inspire people who will read
these stories; their resilience and bravery inspire me.
I think it will inspire readers and in fact on finishing the book there will be lots of people who
will wonder what can I do to improve the lot of people like this. Do you have any
advice of you know what people could actually practically do on finishing
your book to help?
There are many ways in which people can help. I think the first
one is to learn more about refugees and their stories and just go beyond statistics
and figures. Secondly you know I share the story of one woman in the US
who is out there helping refugees in her community, Jennifer is her name. So just
like how we can help refugees in our community whether it's helping them in
their shopping or helping them apply to universities or just having a
conversation with them or a cup of tea with them. But also the final thing is
that you can buy the book because you know you will learn about the stories
but also when you buy the book the money goes straight to the work that we do at
Malala Fund for refugee girls' education.
Well as you say, all of the girls in this
book have incredibly inspiring stories to tell, as I say that strength of
character is I think something that's common in all of you
and so thank you for sharing not only your story but theirs too.
Thank you, it was great talking to you.