Everybody knows Malala Yousafzai’s name. But not everything about the extraordinary young activist’s life is common knowledge. For one thing, she has a private Instagram account (and her feed is filled with pictures of the sky).
The recent Oxford University graduate – she gained an honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 2020 – has been part of the fight to educate young girls ever since she was shot by the Taliban in 2012. Today, the 23-year-old is the author of several books, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in history, and the founder of the Malala Fund.
She was once an enigmatic BBC blogger
At the age of 11, Yousafzai started blogging for the BBC under the pseudonym Gul Makai, about life under Taliban rule in Pakistan. In 2020, a biographical drama entitled Gul Makai was released about Yousafzai’s life. You can still read her blogs here.
Her education has been fittingly stellar
When the Taliban took control of Malala’s town in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, the extremists cracked down on girls going to school. Yousafzai attended Khushaal Public School, previously run by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai. She was on the bus home from school in October 2012 when she was shot in the head by a masked gunman. After relocating to Birmingham in England, she studied at Edgbaston High School for Girls, and then Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University.
She’s good friends with fellow Gen-Z activists
Both climate activist Greta Thunberg and gun control campaigner Emma González are in Yousafzai’s close circle. Thunberg even visited her at Oxford University. “I know the power that a young girl carries in her heart when she has a vision and a mission,” Yousafzai tells British Vogue in the July issue, of the backbone to their friendship.
She’s not set on marriage
“I still don’t understand why people have to get married. If you want to have a person in your life, why do you have to sign marriage papers, why can’t it just be a partnership?”, she asks Sirin Kale in the July issue. “Even until my second year of university, I just thought, ‘I’m never going to get married, never going to have kids – just going to do my work. I’m just going to be happy and live with my family forever’. I didn’t realise that you’re not the same person all the time. You change as well and you’re growing.”
She’s a Twilight fan
In I Am Malala, the young activist recalls reading Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight when the Taliban arrived in her hometown. The books proved so influential that both Malala and her friend – who were 10 at the time – “longed to be vampires”.
She also loves comedy
Not only does Yousafzai love television, but she especially loves comedy. For one, she adores Ted Lasso (not least because his moustache reminds her of her father’s). In her spare time, she loves nothing more than tucking into a Jamaican curry while watching Rick and Morty.
