Malala Yousafzai wore an English jersey in support of the Lionesses at the Australia V England semi final last Wednesday night. But her husband wore an Australian jersey. As a family, she wanted to be clear: they supported both teams.
A passionate football fan and having just flown into Australia just in time to catch that game, Malala has since been issuing calls for FIFA to recognise the Afghan Women’s football team, who escaped to Australia after the fall of Kabul to The Taliban.
“Football is for the players. And if players cannot get the opportunity to play, then what is all this game for? What is FIFA if it cannot help us and play football?”
She also spoke about the need to give girls a voice, to believe in girls as being the changemakers they have the potential and to enable them to get involved in strategy and ideas, as she and her team do at The Malala Fund.
“I often get invited to speak as a ‘girl activist’. I turn 26 this year, so I say, ‘you need girls, not me!’ So I try to bring some girls with me, to share their stories,” she said on taking girls to the United Nations and elsewhere.
Malala also gave a quick review of Barbie, as well as her favourite TV shows (“The Last of Us”) and her tip for Sunday night’s World Cup final. “You know the answer, England,” she said.
The Nobel Peace Prize recipient shared a conversation with Hamish McDonald in Sydney for Level the Playing Field, Coca-Cola’ 2023 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Summit, aligning with the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ (which Coca-Cola is a major sponsor of), where she spoke passionately about the power of girls’ education, which she said so often comes up as a key priority for solving massive global issues.
“I sometimes remind people that we don’t value education enough. And we don’t realise its power. Education is the foundation of any society, and I think the Taliban have figured it out,” she said.
“I believe that education can play such a key role in addressing many of the world’s problems including extremism, including gender inequality, extreme poverty, and also it can bring about economic progress. It can bring more peace and prosperity.”
Malala shared how there were other girls like her who were also speaking up about the right to education, prior to her being shot by the Taliban while she was returning home on a bus in 2012, but she had one key thing that help get her message heard: support from her father who believed in gender equality.
“The best thing men in our society can do is create space for women, not stand in their way and let them do what they want.”
Like so many other girls, she never thought she would become an activist.
“I remember the mornings when my brother would pack their bags and go to school but I could not because I was a girl
“At that time, I had no option, but to speak out for my right to education. I could only see darkness in front of me.”
Malala doesn’t remember the day two members of the Taliban stormed the bus she was on. They shot three bullets, one hitting her in the head and the other two hitting the friends who was sitting next to her. Malala spent a week moving from hospital to hospital, before eventually being transferred to England.
She does recall the cards and messages she received in the hospital, and being overwhelmed by the response.
“That was the beginning of my new journey as an education activist. I set up a fund. To me, that was the best way to fight, to not only protect my right to education but the right of many girls all over the world.
“My survival is a miracle. I feel like this life is for a purpose: to ensure that other girls’ dream comes true to have equal access and opportunity to learning
“For me, the best way to take revenge was to fight for the education of all girls.”
She said that having met girls all over the world who have faced horrendous atrocities, the one thing that gives them hope is education.
Despite the Taliban’s best attempts, Malala did get her education. And she graduated from university three years ago, but says she continues to learn every day. “I realised that I cannot stop my journey as a student. We have to keep learning from the experts. we have to keep learning from people with wisdom. We have to keep learning from people with experiences. We have to keep learning from people who are a lot younger than us, who see the world in a very different way,” she said.
“We have to see the world through the perspectives of people from different backgrounds, from different parts of the world. I think the more knowledge, the more perspectives that we have, the better we are in our own lives — to make better decisions, to come up with better solutions and to ensure that we are acting more responsibly.”
Malala says she read about the Afghan women’s football teams and their escape to Australia in the New York Times, especially how they had to hide their uniforms and sports clothing, due to the very real fear they would be targeted. They are now together, missing their families, but trying to stay focused on the game and giving hope to this sisters in Afghanistan. But they can’t play for their country.
“Football has revealed so much about gender inequity that is there this sport, but also it’s just the beginning and we hope that it only gets better and improves and we can address these issues. But at the same time, we have to remember that there is a whole team from Afghanistan that cannot play. So our goal is to ask people to recognize them and to give them the opportunity to play on the country,” she said.
“FIFA said it’s for gender equity, but it’s against gender equity to accept what the Taliban has done. FIFA could take a bold step and ensure that women get a chance to play.
Malala had the opportunity to meet the Afghan women’s team on Saturday morning in Melbourne, with a petition calling for their recognition receiving more than 160,000 signatures.
Asked about her observations on Barbie — following Malala’s Instagram post in which she stood with her husband in the ‘Barbie’ Box’ and shared the words, “She’s a noble prize winner, he’s just Ken”, she was positive.
“The Barbie movie is very interesting because it shows us those contrasting views of a complete patriarchy and a complete matriarchy as well. And it shows us how there needs to be more understanding on all sides to see the impact of our decisions,” she said.
“And I think it’s also a very funny and entertaining movie.”