Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist and the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize spoke about gender equality in the World Economic Forum in Davos. The young author of the book “I am Malala” emphasized on the importance of education in attaining goals of equal opportunities to women.
“When we talk about feminism and women’s rights, we’re actually addressing men. Men have a big role to play. We have to teach young boys how to be men. In order to be a man you have to recognize that all women and all those around you have equal rights and that you are part of this movement for equality,” she explained.
Malala in her statement against the Taliban’s ban on letting girls go to school said that this is a big form of gender inequality. She claimed that the Taliban knew women will get empowered by education and therefore were against girls going to school as they did not want women to be equal to men.
She said her role model is her father who challenged the society and allowed her to go to school, even as there were many other girls whose parents did not allow them to even read and kept them home when the boys went to school.
She urged the world leaders to take up this initiative everywhere to see to it that women have accessible sources of proper education as she alone cannot take the responsibility of sending girls to school. “I haven’t met a single prime minister who would not send their own children to school and university. But when it comes to the rest of the world’s children, they struggle a bit. So you have to keep on reminding them,” she said.
She also explained that in order to be a man you have to recognize that all women and all those around you have equal rights and that you are part of this movement for equality.