Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Case Study on
Leadership of Malala Yousafzai
Course Title: Business Leadership
Course Code-BUS 7303

Submitted to:

Lt Gen Sheikh Mamun Khaled, PhD (SMK) Bangladesh University of

Professionals (BUP)

Submitted by:

Name: Adiba Ridah

ID: 2023033015
Batch: 25
Section: A
Program-MBA (Professional)

Date of Submission: 9th July, 2021

1
 Table of Contents

Introduction 3
Story of Malala 4
Theories Describing Malala’s Leadership Quality 5
Qualities that make Malala a World Leader 6
Bravery 6
Inspirational 7
Commitment 7
Leadership Style 7
Belief and Respect upon Own Religion 7
Conclusion 8

2
Introduction
Malala Yousafzai, a young social change leader in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, was born on July 12,
1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. She became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in
recognition of her efforts on behalf of children's rights. Malala was born in an area where girls
were restricted from going to school, and therefore treated unfairly. Unlike anyone else, she was
not afraid to speak out against the Taliban. She was shot in the forehead on the way back from
school on a bus as she spoke out on the right of girl’s education. Luckily, she survived and
continued to globally speak out about the importance of education (Malala Yousafzai Leadership
Qualities). Regardless of age, gender, or status, Malala fought confidently for women’s rights to
be educated like everyone else. She showed bravery, courage and commitment. She is a
Visionary as she is encouraging a significant cultural change (Ireland & Sathiyaseelan). She
possesses leadership, courage, and compassion which allow her to be an influential leader in
world history (Malala Yousafzai Leadership Qualities).

Lack of leadership has affected the education sector in many developing countries. Pakistan is
considered as a developing country that has been affected by leadership problems in the
education sector. Malala Yousafzai has taken the mantle to feel the leadership vacuum in the

3
Pakistan education sector. She has been at the forefront championing the rights of girl children to
education. Her leadership skills and qualities match with those of brilliant leaders. She
demonstrates the changing role of women leadership in the world today. In fact, Malala
Yousafzai is pulling Pakistan women and other women in the world into leadership judgeship
(As a Leader: Malala Yousafzai, 2014).

Story of Malala
“I raise up my voice-not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard” ― Malala
Yousafzai.

In 1997, a girl was born in Mingora, an area of Pakistan which was constantly under attack by
the Taliban and girls were restricted from going to school. Though she was born in such a
conservative place, she always dreamt of the girl children's right to education. In 2008, at the age
of eleven she made her maiden activism speech. In that speech, she anonymously gave a talk to
the BBC titled “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education”. She started to blog
on BBC advocating for women’s rights to education. In the following year, soon after her
identity was revealed, she became the target by Taliban for her activism and advocacy for the girl
child education (The Life of Malala and Her Leadership Style as an Aspirational Leader). The
Taliban issued death threats against her on many occasions because of her campaigns for gender
equality in education (As a Leader: Malala Yousafzai, 2014). Despite the various death threats
she faced, she stood with what she believed in. She was not afraid of the consequences. At such a
young age, all she cared about was making a difference and being heard (Things To Learn From
Malala Yousafzai’s Unique Leadership). As she spread her message, the Taliban sought to
silence her and the danger she faced intensified. In 2012, on her way home from school, her bus
was stopped by a Taliban gunman who shot her in the head not once or twice, but thrice. She was
in critical condition in a hospital thousands of miles from home unable to speak or breathe
without assistance. The bullet cut the nerve on the left portion of her face, so she could neither
smile nor hear from one side. After three months in the hospital, the girl had made a miraculous
recovery (Leadership Demands Purpose: Lessons from Malala). The shooting resulted in a
massive outpouring of support for the girl, which continued during her recovery. Nine months
after being shot by the Taliban, she gave a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday in
2013. She highlighted her focus on education and women's rights, urging world leaders to change

4
their policies. In October 2013, the European Parliament awarded the girl the Sakharov Prize for
Freedom of Thought in acknowledgment of her work. In 2013, the girl and her father launched a
funding organization, which works to ensure girls around the world have access to 12 years of
free, safe, quality education. In October 2014, she became the youngest person to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize, at just 17 years old; she received the award along with Indian children's rights
activist Kailash Satyarthi (Biography: Malala Yousafzai). For her 18th birthday, in July 2015, the
girl continued to take action on global education by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in
Lebanon. Its expenses are covered by the Fund. On March 29, 2018, the girl returned to Pakistan
for the first time since her brutal 2012 attack. "In the last five years, I have always dreamed of
coming back to my country," she said after her arrival, adding, "I never wanted to leave." This is
neither a story of a crime-thriller movie with a happy ending, nor an award winning fiction’s gist.
This drama was truly staged in the life of Malala Yousafzai.

Theories Describing Malala’s Quality

Most people associate leadership with a position of power and impact. Remaining thought is that
if someone has a significant title or role, that person must be a strong leader. Before having any
of these things, Malala Yousafzai showed the world that anyone can be a leader — regardless of
age, gender, experience, role, money or knowledge (Leadership Demands Purpose: Lessons from
Malala). Possessing leadership qualities from an age so young is something very hardly be seen.
Using those leadership qualities to make an impactful change and fighting against all odds to do
so, is true bravery and leadership combined (Things To Learn From Malala Yousafzai’s Unique
Leadership).

Several types of theories can be used to describe the qualities of Malala Yousafzai. Among them
three of the qualities are going to be described here. The first one is the ‘great man’ theory, the
second one is the situational theory and the final one is behavioral theory.

According to the first theory i.e. the ‘great man’ theory, a leader is born to lead, but not made to
lead. According to this theory, Malala’s leadership skills and knowledge can be considered as
natural. Though she was a young girl, she was courageous and did not get scared of anything in
her quest for equality in the education sector. Moreover, her continued critique of the Taliban
depicts her as a lady who goes against the chances to reaffirm her agendas. These are the features
of an innate leader as opposed to the mentored leader (As a Leader: Malala Yousafzai, 2014).
5
The trait theory that defines Malala Yousafzai as a contemporary leader is the situational theory.
This theory assumes that leaders are able to come up with the best answers to the problems
affecting the society. Malala appeared as a leader during a period when her people, especially
women, confronted many problems in their societies. She came on the part to address the girls on
their right to combat for education. In addition, Malala demonstrated leadership by her own
instance. She also helped in eradicating poverty and ignorance. Moreover, contingency theories
clarify on leadership styles as related to the instant environment. In this theory, leadership styles
are not good in all circumstances. Concerning this to Malala, she was able to relate her
environment with the difficulties she and other women faced. After that, this girl/woman came
up with good solutions to those problems (As a Leader: Malala Yousafzai, 2014).

Behavioral theories link to the idea that great leaders are always born and not made; it mainly
emphases on the actions of leaders, and not necessarily on their mental capabilities. Malala is
among the people, whose actions are connected with leadership. She mainly wrote on the threat
of girl education. She was elected the best blogger of the year. She was also nominated for the
award by the Nobel Peace Prize. All these confirm that despite being a woman, Malala has the
qualities of a good leader (As a Leader: Malala Yousafzai, 2014).

Qualities that make Malala a World Leader

Leaders like Malala can be characterized as: Transformational, Charismatic, Visionary and
Servant leader for their following characteristics (The Life of Malala and Her Leadership Style
as an Aspirational Leader).

Bravery
A quality Malala showed like a true leader was bravery. A leader needs to be brave so that they
can stand up to any difficulty that can affect their group and carry their group to the final
destination as well as making tough decisions fearlessly. Malala proved she is a brave leader
through many actions. Despite being an 11 years old child she was not afraid of speaking against
Taliban to achieve the right of girl child education. She did not lower her voice even after being
shot by a Taliban gunman. She proved her bravery as she continued to campaign for women’s
education rights after her recovery from the shooting (Ireland & Sathiyaseelan).

6
Inspirational
Malala is tremendously inspiring for not only having a strong belief but she did never give up on
it. She spoke out for women’s rights even after risking her life along with her family. This proves
she is very inspiring as others that may have the same philosophies could follow after her. The
consequence of Malala being inspirational is that others will follow her and may not be afraid to
speak out like her. There are bad consequences as well, for example, other women who had the
same beliefs as Malala could now be very scared due to what happened to Malala (Ireland &
Sathiyaseelan).

Commitment
Another quality she showed was commitment. A leader needs to be committed so that they can
keep perseveringly trying and striving towards reaching their goals. Malala showed a lot of
commitment from when she first started campaigning for women's rights. But most significantly
she showed her commitment by continuing campaigning after she got shot by the Taliban. She
got a Nobel Peace Prize due to her efforts, and commitment. In her Nobel Speech, she proved her
commitment to her goals when she said ‘As far as I know, I am just a committed and even
stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education, who wants to see women
having equal rights and who wants peace in every corner of the world’ (Ireland & Sathiyaseelan).

Leadership Style
Malala’s Leadership Style is Visionary. Visionaries motivate people to go forward and attain a
certain goal. Malala proved she is a Visionary when she had a vision that women should not be
restricted to be educated and kept fighting for her vision to become true. This yielded her
followers that believed in what she believed as well. She also proved herself as a Visionary when
she encouraged others through many things like her speech. This assisted her become well
known around the world, in turn gaining her more supporters that believed in what she believed
in (Khan & Varshney, 2013).

Belief and Respect upon Own Religion

Malala was born and brought up as a Muslim. Muslim leaders’ actions are influenced by Islamic
religious values of honesty, integrity, equality, truthfulness, and sincerity (Khan & Varshney,
2013). Self-awareness is considered one important leadership quality and it involves

7
thankfulness and respect for Allah and His creation. Additional qualities a leader shows are
purity, patient perseverance, and steadfastness (Danielewicz-Betz, 2013).

In Islam, leadership is based on trust and the focus is on doing well (Danielewicz-Betz, 2013).
These deeply rooted spiritual ideas drive Malala to understand effective community participation
and inspire her work and active citizenship. In her biography, Malala referenced fundamental
values from religion, family, and teachers as important guiding philosophies that inform her
understanding and perception of community. She proudly locates herself within a specific
cultural and religious community, recognizing the basic values and needs of the group through a
generous description of family and community lives (I Am Malala: A Resource Guide For
Educators).

Conclusion
Malala’s leadership story is nothing short of a miracle. At a very young age she achieved what
most people would never be able to imagine in their lifetime (The Life of Malala and Her
Leadership Style as an Aspirational Leader). Malala discloses her personal stories and insightful
observations across the intersections of everyday life and the existing power structures of
Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She acknowledges support not only from the community but also from
world leaders, evaluating the progress of the journey so far. She works within the community to
invest in the common betterment and develop ability in followers working toward equal access to
education. She speaks to authority figures like an advocate and community action driver,
representing the needs of the group. Within this dialogue, she exposes her charisma as she
channels hope through a hopeful attitude that change is possible. Her story reveals the active
process of engaging others to involve the cause for equal access to education and accept social
responsibility for positive change (I Am Malala: A Resource Guide For Educators).