Swift 1

Grace Swift

Prof. Kane

English 115TTh1

24 September 2019

E1.2: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 within Mingora, Pakistan. At the time, girls were

allowed to attend school in Pakistan and her father ran a girls’ school so Malala had the

opportunity to attend school and get an education. However, in 2008, the Taliban took control

and announced that they would no longer allow girls to attend school. Malala decided to fight for

her right to attend school and began speaking out against these new policies. Due to the fact that

she spoke out against the Taliban and brought attention to the violation of rights in that area, she

became a target and was shot in the head in 2012, when she was only fifteen. For her own

protection and treatment, she was moved to England and once she finally recovered she

remained in the United Kingdom until things began to calm down in the area where she lived.

She has continued to speak and advocate for women’s rights to education and won the Nobel

Peace Prize in 2014, created a charity to help young girls get important opportunities, and

currently attends the University of Oxford, studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

Although Malala still would have been successful in other ways, as a mother or a student, if

these incidents and decisions had happened differently, she wouldn’t have succeeded in

becoming a women’s education activist if she hadn’t spoken out against these unfair laws and if

she had given up after being targeted and shot by the Taliban.
 Swift 2

The first choice that Malala had was whether or not she wanted to speak out against what

she and others believed was wrong even though there was a large Taliban presence. She likely

knew that she would be a target of the group and their violent actions if she publicly denounced

their decisions; however, she still chose to do it. Malala’s first speech began to circulate, shortly

before the girls’ schools were officially shut down in Pakistan and as time went on, she began

blogging for BBC and appearing on television, so many began to follow her efforts for

education. However, If Malala had decided that fighting for women’s right to education had been

too dangerous, her life would be very different. When asked, “What would your life be like right

now if you were living in Pakistan without an education?” in an interview with National

Geographic, Malala responded, “I would have two or three children. I’m fortunate that I’m 18

and I’m still not married. When you don’t get an education, your life is very much controlled by

others” (Yousafzai). Within this quote, Malala gives a glimpse of what her life would be like had

she not advocated for women’s rights to education and eventually moved to the UK.

Unfortunately, this is the reality of life for many girls and women in some parts of the world who

are unable to get an education and, as a result, they are unable or disallowed from getting a job,

so they get married and have children. In recent times, the possibilities for women have changed,

and it is no longer expected for them to be a housewife and Malala specifically expects more in

her own life. A major factor of this problem is the very strict cultures within those countries

because some cultures stress marriage and childbearing for women rather than education and

work; however, some women, like Malala, strive for a different life. This harsh reality can be

compared to Two Ways to Belong in America by Bharati Mukherjee since the story is about two

sisters that moved from India to America and managed to live very different lives. While the
 Swift 3

sisters ended up taking different paths when living in America, they both gave up the traditional

life where their father chooses who they will marry and have children with since they both

married a partner of their choosing and decided to stay in America and work rather than moving

back to India. As Bharati Mukherjee described it, she was “renouncing 3,000 years (at least) of

caste-observant, ‘pure culture’ marriage in the Mukherjee family,” (Mukherjee 1). Malala’s

situation and Bharati’s situation may be completely different, in the long run, however, both of

them came from a place that had very strict rules that they broke out of and attempted to bring

around positive change. Clearly, Malala’s situation is much more serious which simply shows the

amount of bravery she needed to do what she has done. In conclusion, Malala’s ability to speak

out against a radical group in her home town in an attempt to change very strict tradition was the

first important decision she made that helped bring her to the amount of success she reached

years later.

Many people would easily give up their activism if it meant life or death, Malala, on the

other hand, faced it and fought it. After she was shot in the head in 2012, she went through many

major surgeries and after many months of recovery, she spoke at the United Nations. By this

point, Malala had already made an impact and inspired many to protest and fight for girls’

education. Even after an exhausting recovery and life or death situation, Malala still made the

decision to move onward and continue speaking about the topic to a broader audience. Malala’s

decision to not back down and continue to speak for her rights and question those who thought

otherwise can be compared to Martin Luther King Jr. A short time before writing the Letter from

Birmingham Jail, MLK was sent to prison for protesting in Birmingham, Alabama and fighting

for his, and many other people’s, rights. Even though he was in prison, he still continued to speak
 Swift 4

out and, rather than acting out in violence, he simply wrote a letter to his critic. Malala’s

determination and can easily be compared to Martin Luther King Jr.’s grit and dedication to his

beliefs. In 2014, Malala went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize along with Kailash Satyarthi, a child

rights activist from India, at the of age seventeen, making her the youngest person to have won

the prize. Within her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Malala explained, “I had two options. One

was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I

chose the second one. I decided to speak up” (Yousafzai). Malala explains that she felt as if she

only had two options to choose from and both ended with death, due to the unfortunate

circumstances she believed that fighting for her right was the best option. Due to the large

amounts of fighting and turmoil in the Swat Valley, it is likely that she could have been hurt or

killed had she been there even if she hadn’t fought for education. Two of Malala’s classmates

were actually shot as well and they had no history of activism. Therefore, she, unlike others,

decided to try to make a difference and fight for something she believed in before she was killed.

Before Malala was shot, she didn’t seem to consider moving out of the valley, however, she was

in contact with members of the BBC. Had this tragedy not happened, Malala possibly wouldn’t

have reached the audience she did had she stayed in Swat Valley. Similar to other famous

activists, Malala faced death and still chose to continue the fight and speak for what she felt was

important.

All in all, if it were not for the tragic events that had unfolded in Malala’s hometown, she

would not have been given the opportunity to make the crucial decisions she had made of

whether to stand, fight and risk death or if she would simply allow her education to be taken

away. She found much more success and recognition through these events than she would have if
 Swift 5

she were given the chance to stay home without the fear of being killed. Had Malala Yousafzai

not stood up and spoke out against the Taliban in her home country even though she would

become a target, she wouldn’t have been able to make such a large change and spread her

message as far as she did. Furthermore, had she not continued to fight after the assassination

attempt, she wouldn’t have continued to spread the message, created her charity organization,

won the Nobel Prize, and many other accomplishments that she has completed. Her decisions not

only helped her bring positive change to her home but they also helped bring positive change

around the world and to her own life.

 Swift 6

Works Cited

Yousafzai, Malala. “We Ask the World Leaders to Unite and Make Education a Top Priority.”

Vital Speeches of the Day, vol. 81, no. 2, Feb. 2015, pp. 36–38. EBSCOhost, sea

Yousafzai, Malala. “Why I Fight for Education.” National Geographic, vol. 229, no. 3, Mar.

2016, p. c7. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=113337787&site=ehost-live.

Yousafzai, Malala. “Malala's Story: Malala Fund.” Malala's Story | Malala Fund,

www.malala.org/malalas-story.

Blumberg, Naomi. “Malala Yousafzai.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 8 July 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Malala-Yousafzai.

King, Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” 16 Apr. 1963.

Mukherjee, Bharati. “Two Ways to Belong in America.” 26 Sept. 1996.

Smallman, Etan. “Meet the 'Other Malalas' - the Nobel Peace Prize Winner's Friends Now

Heading to Edinburgh University.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 18 Apr.

2017,

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/meet-malalas-nobel-peace-prize-winners-friends-now-

heading/.