A Girl with a Book

“By targeting Malala, extremists showed what they feared the most: a girl with a book.”

Today is the sixteenth birthday of Malala Yousafzai. She did not celebrate it in the orthodox “sweet sixteen” birthday party way. She celebrated it by making a speech at the United Nations in New York – her first major appearance on the world stage. She received a standing ovation.

Here’s the link to her fifteen-minute address: http://webtv.un.org/watch/malala-yousafzai-addresses-united-nations-youth-assembly/2542094251001/ Please take the time to watch.

Malala Yousafzai spoke at the UN in New York on her 16th birthday, a day now dubbed Malala Day. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)

Malala spoke at the UN Youth Assembly in support of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon‘s Global Education First Initiative. The UN declared July 12 as “Malala Day.” The President of the UN General Assembly and the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, supported by the A World at School initiative, also participated. More than 500 young global leaders met to work towards the goal of getting all children, especially girls, in school and learning by 2015; education is the second UN Millennium Development Goal.

Malala stood at the podium, very composed, among the powerful men and women in suits sitting all around her. She stood there, straight and serious, and told us that she was wearing a pale pink shawl around her shoulders that had belonged to Benazir Bhutto, the first (and so far, the only) female prime minister of Pakistan. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007, soon after returning to Pakistan to contest general elections, aged fifty-four years. At age fifteen, Malala was also the target of assassins. Taliban gunmen shot her in the head on October 9, 2012, on her way home from school in the town of Mingora, in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She was in a coma for ten days, a bullet lodged in her neck.

Malala after the attack on her.

As she spoke, in a strong and clear voice, tears immediately filled my eyes. Her tone was not only determined and defiant; she also had a strong message of forgiveness, no desire for revenge. This was perhaps one of the most touching aspects of Malala’s speech.

She raised her voice louder as she demanded that world leaders uphold and respect the rights of women and girls; spoke out against discrimination of all kinds; and called for an end to poverty and ignorance. “I raise up my voice not so that I can shout,” she said, “but so that those without a voice can be heard.”

It was hard to believe this is a teenage girl. Her fearless, cool dignity and determination are an inspiration to human rights activists everywhere. And to every man, woman and child seeking the light. Seeking freedom from the darkness of ignorance and suffering.

“One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.”

“For one Malala shot and silenced, there are now thousands of younger Malalas who cannot be kept quiet,” says former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (Photo: Arshad Arbab / EPA-Landov)

Malala in 2009, around the time that she first began campaigning for girls’ right to an education.  (Photo: Veronique de Viguerie / Getty Images)