WEBVTT

00:00:01.228 --> 00:00:05.540
In many patriarchal societies and tribal societies,

00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:10.611
fathers are usually known by their sons,

00:00:10.611 --> 00:00:13.781
but I'm one of the few fathers

00:00:13.781 --> 00:00:15.932
who is known by his daughter,

00:00:15.932 --> 00:00:17.666
and I am proud of it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:17.666 --> 00:00:21.542
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:23.810 --> 00:00:26.889
Malala started her campaign for education

00:00:26.889 --> 00:00:29.531
and stood for her rights in 2007,

00:00:29.531 --> 00:00:34.072
and when her efforts were honored in 2011,

00:00:34.072 --> 00:00:37.543
and she was given a national youth peace prize,

00:00:37.543 --> 00:00:39.705
and she became a very famous,

00:00:39.705 --> 00:00:43.095
very popular young girl of her country.

00:00:43.095 --> 00:00:47.108
Before that, she was my daughter,

00:00:47.108 --> 00:00:49.789
but now I am her father.

00:00:51.911 --> 00:00:53.158
Ladies and gentlemen,

00:00:53.158 --> 00:00:55.722
if we glance to human history,

00:00:55.722 --> 00:00:58.703
the story of women

00:00:58.703 --> 00:01:02.094
is the story of injustice,

00:01:02.094 --> 00:01:04.108
inequality,

00:01:04.108 --> 00:01:09.219
violence, and exploitation.

00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:11.030
You see,

00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:15.404
in patriarchal societies,

00:01:15.404 --> 00:01:17.908
right from the very beginning,

00:01:17.908 --> 00:01:20.746
when a girl is born,

00:01:20.746 --> 00:01:24.918
her birth is not celebrated.

00:01:24.918 --> 00:01:27.358
She is not welcomed,

00:01:27.358 --> 00:01:30.797
neither by father nor by mother.

00:01:30.797 --> 00:01:32.590
Neighborhood comes

00:01:32.590 --> 00:01:34.413
and commiserates with the mother,

00:01:34.413 --> 00:01:39.445
and nobody congratulates the father.

00:01:39.445 --> 00:01:43.607
And a mother is very uncomfortable

00:01:43.607 --> 00:01:47.789
for having a girl child.

00:01:47.789 --> 00:01:51.571
When she gives birth to the first girl child,

00:01:51.571 --> 00:01:55.260
first daughter, she is sad.

00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:59.067
When she gives first to the second daughter,

00:01:59.067 --> 00:02:01.177
she is shocked,

00:02:01.177 --> 00:02:04.361
and in the expectation of a son,

00:02:04.361 --> 00:02:07.675
when she gives birth to a third daughter,

00:02:07.675 --> 00:02:13.122
she feels guilty like a criminal.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:13.122 --> 00:02:15.633
Not only the mother suffers,

00:02:15.633 --> 00:02:18.585
but the daughter, the newly born daughter,

00:02:18.585 --> 00:02:20.505
when she grows old,

00:02:20.505 --> 00:02:22.824
she suffers too.

00:02:22.824 --> 00:02:24.816
At the age of five,

00:02:24.816 --> 00:02:28.145
while she should be going to school,

00:02:28.145 --> 00:02:29.903
she stays at home

00:02:29.903 --> 00:02:34.494
and her brothers are admitted in school.

00:02:34.494 --> 00:02:37.211
Until the age of 12, somehow,

00:02:37.211 --> 00:02:39.898
she has a good life.

00:02:39.898 --> 00:02:41.723
She can have fun.

00:02:41.723 --> 00:02:44.435
She can play with her friends in the streets,

00:02:44.435 --> 00:02:46.658
and she can move around in the streets

00:02:46.658 --> 00:02:49.541
like a butterfly.

00:02:49.541 --> 00:02:53.187
But when she enters her teens,

00:02:53.187 --> 00:02:55.419
when she becomes 13 years old,

00:02:55.419 --> 00:02:59.001
she is forbidden to go out of her home

00:02:59.001 --> 00:03:02.161
without a male escort.

00:03:02.161 --> 00:03:08.023
She is confined under the four walls of her home.

00:03:08.023 --> 00:03:10.121
She is no more,

00:03:10.121 --> 00:03:13.161
she is no more a free individual.

00:03:13.161 --> 00:03:16.072
She becomes the so-called honor

00:03:16.072 --> 00:03:18.800
of her father and of her brothers

00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:22.296
and of her family,

00:03:22.296 --> 00:03:24.784
and if she transgresses

00:03:24.784 --> 00:03:28.095
the code of that so-called honor,

00:03:28.095 --> 00:03:32.683
she could be killed.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:32.683 --> 00:03:36.560
And it is also interesting that this so-called

00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:38.355
code of honor,

00:03:38.355 --> 00:03:41.521
it does not only affect the life of a girl,

00:03:41.521 --> 00:03:43.816
it also affects the life

00:03:43.816 --> 00:03:48.630
of the male members of the family.

00:03:48.630 --> 00:03:54.470
I know a family of seven sisters and one brother,

00:03:54.470 --> 00:03:57.138
and that one brother,

00:03:57.138 --> 00:04:00.303
he has migrated to the Gulf countries,

00:04:00.303 --> 00:04:03.168
to earn a living for his seven sisters

00:04:03.168 --> 00:04:05.423
and parents,

00:04:05.423 --> 00:04:11.140
because he thinks that it will be humiliating

00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:14.215
if his seven sisters learn a skill

00:04:14.215 --> 00:04:16.426
and they go out of home

00:04:16.426 --> 00:04:20.407
and earn some livelihood.

00:04:20.407 --> 00:04:22.198
So this brother,

00:04:22.198 --> 00:04:25.550
he sacrifices the joys of his life

00:04:25.550 --> 00:04:28.942
and the happiness of his sisters

00:04:28.942 --> 00:04:33.388
at the altar of so-called honor.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:33.388 --> 00:04:34.922
And there is one more norm

00:04:34.922 --> 00:04:37.542
of the patriarchal societies.

00:04:37.542 --> 00:04:41.868
That is called obedience.

00:04:41.868 --> 00:04:45.562
A good girl, a good girl is supposed to be

00:04:45.562 --> 00:04:50.856
very quiet, very humble,

00:04:50.856 --> 00:04:54.104
and very submissive.

00:04:54.104 --> 00:04:55.967
It is the criteria.

00:04:55.967 --> 00:05:00.063
The role model good girl should be very quiet.

00:05:00.063 --> 00:05:02.195
She is supposed to be silent

00:05:02.195 --> 00:05:05.259
and she is supposed to accept the decisions

00:05:05.259 --> 00:05:07.755
of her father and mother

00:05:07.755 --> 00:05:10.795
and the decisions of elders,

00:05:10.795 --> 00:05:13.386
if even she does not like.

00:05:13.386 --> 00:05:16.561
If she is married to a man she doesn't like

00:05:16.561 --> 00:05:19.472
or if she is married to an old man,

00:05:19.472 --> 00:05:21.202
she has to accept,

00:05:21.202 --> 00:05:23.320
because she does not want to be dubbed

00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:25.897
as disobedient.

00:05:25.897 --> 00:05:27.775
If she is married very early,

00:05:27.775 --> 00:05:29.249
she has to accept.

00:05:29.249 --> 00:05:33.240
Otherwise, she will be called disobedient.

00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:35.950
And what happens at the end?

00:05:35.950 --> 00:05:37.752
In the words of a poetess,

00:05:37.752 --> 00:05:40.431
she is wedded, bedded,

00:05:40.431 --> 00:05:45.695
and then she gives birth
to more sons and daughters.

00:05:45.695 --> 00:05:48.586
And it is the irony of the situation

00:05:48.586 --> 00:05:50.473
that this mother,

00:05:50.473 --> 00:05:53.616
she teaches the same lesson of obedience

00:05:53.616 --> 00:05:55.097
to her daughter

00:05:55.097 --> 00:05:59.617
and the same lesson of honor to her sons.

00:05:59.617 --> 00:06:04.222
And this vicious cycle goes on, goes on.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:06.137 --> 00:06:08.848
Ladies and gentlemen,

00:06:08.848 --> 00:06:11.962
this plight of millions of women

00:06:11.962 --> 00:06:14.426
could be changed

00:06:14.426 --> 00:06:17.384
if we think differently,

00:06:17.384 --> 00:06:21.072
if women and men think differently,

00:06:21.072 --> 00:06:25.445
if men and women in the
tribal and patriarchal societies

00:06:25.445 --> 00:06:27.335
in the developing countries,

00:06:27.335 --> 00:06:30.400
if they can break few norms

00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:34.974
of family and society,

00:06:34.974 --> 00:06:40.407
if they can abolish the discriminatory laws

00:06:40.407 --> 00:06:42.951
of the systems in their states

00:06:42.951 --> 00:06:45.119
which go against the basic human rights

00:06:45.119 --> 00:06:49.079
of the women.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:54.449
Dear brothers and sisters, when Malala was born,

00:06:54.449 --> 00:06:56.679
and for the first time,

00:06:56.679 --> 00:06:58.040
believe me,

00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:02.638
I don't like newborn children to be honest,

00:07:02.638 --> 00:07:06.358
but when I went and I looked into her eyes,

00:07:06.358 --> 00:07:08.540
believe me,

00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:12.444
I got extremely honored.

00:07:12.444 --> 00:07:14.844
And long before she was born,

00:07:14.844 --> 00:07:17.589
I thought about her name,

00:07:17.589 --> 00:07:21.075
and I was fascinated with a heroic

00:07:21.075 --> 00:07:24.892
legendary freedom fighter in Afghanistan.

00:07:24.892 --> 00:07:29.979
Her name was Malalai of Bevent,

00:07:29.979 --> 00:07:34.155
and I named my daughter after her.

00:07:34.155 --> 00:07:37.064
A few days after Malala was born,

00:07:37.064 --> 00:07:39.084
my daughter was born,

00:07:39.084 --> 00:07:40.944
my cousin came to,

00:07:40.944 --> 00:07:42.712
and it was a coincidence,

00:07:42.712 --> 00:07:45.304
he came to my home

00:07:45.304 --> 00:07:47.901
and he brought a family tree,

00:07:47.901 --> 00:07:51.723
family tree of Yousafzai family,

00:07:51.723 --> 00:07:54.187
and when I looked at the family tree,

00:07:54.187 --> 00:08:00.363
it traced back to 300 years of our ancestors.

00:08:00.363 --> 00:08:04.637
But when I looked, all were men,

00:08:04.637 --> 00:08:06.890
and I picked my pen,

00:08:06.890 --> 00:08:09.068
drew a line from my name,

00:08:09.068 --> 00:08:12.050
and wrote, "Malala."

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:13.832 --> 00:08:16.649
And when she grow old,

00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:20.355
when she was four and a half years old,

00:08:20.355 --> 00:08:23.844
I admitted her in my school.

00:08:23.844 --> 00:08:26.380
You will be asking, then, why should I mention about

00:08:26.380 --> 00:08:29.019
the admission of a girl in a school?

00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:31.276
Yes, I must mention it.

00:08:31.276 --> 00:08:34.731
It may be taken for granted in Canada,

00:08:34.731 --> 00:08:38.219
in America, in many developed countries,

00:08:38.219 --> 00:08:40.693
but in poor countries,

00:08:40.693 --> 00:08:44.026
in patriarchal societies, in tribal societies,

00:08:44.026 --> 00:08:47.859
it's a bit even for the life of girl.

00:08:47.859 --> 00:08:51.437
Enrollment in a school means

00:08:51.437 --> 00:08:57.170
recognition of her identity and her name.

00:08:57.170 --> 00:08:58.786
Admission in a school means

00:08:58.786 --> 00:09:02.545
that she has entered the worlds of dreams

00:09:02.545 --> 00:09:04.362
and aspirations

00:09:04.362 --> 00:09:07.072
where she can explore her potentials

00:09:07.072 --> 00:09:10.935
for her future life.

00:09:10.935 --> 00:09:13.276
I have five sisters,

00:09:13.276 --> 00:09:16.359
and none of them could go to school,

00:09:16.359 --> 00:09:18.191
and you will be astonished,

00:09:18.191 --> 00:09:21.032
when I was filling,

00:09:21.032 --> 00:09:22.630
two weeks before,

00:09:22.630 --> 00:09:26.218
when I was filling the Canadian visa form,

00:09:26.218 --> 00:09:31.007
and I was filling the family part of the form,

00:09:31.007 --> 00:09:33.137
I could not recall

00:09:33.137 --> 00:09:37.249
the surnames of some of my sisters.

00:09:37.249 --> 00:09:38.991
And the reason was

00:09:38.991 --> 00:09:42.079
that I have never, never seen the names

00:09:42.079 --> 00:09:48.263
of my sisters written on any document.

00:09:48.263 --> 00:09:50.896
That was the reason that

00:09:50.896 --> 00:09:54.336
I valued my daughter.

00:09:54.336 --> 00:09:58.681
What my father could not give to my sisters

00:09:58.681 --> 00:10:00.527
and to his daughters,

00:10:00.527 --> 00:10:04.906
I thought I must change it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:04.906 --> 00:10:07.959
I used to appreciate the intelligence

00:10:07.959 --> 00:10:11.477
and the brilliance of my daughter.

00:10:11.477 --> 00:10:14.271
I encouraged her to sit with me

00:10:14.271 --> 00:10:16.030
when my friends used to come.

00:10:16.030 --> 00:10:20.607
I encouraged her to go with
me to different meetings.

00:10:20.607 --> 00:10:22.206
And all these good values,

00:10:22.206 --> 00:10:25.462
I tried to inculcate in her personality.

00:10:25.462 --> 00:10:29.068
And this was not only she, only Malala.

00:10:29.068 --> 00:10:31.893
I imparted all these good values

00:10:31.893 --> 00:10:36.189
to my school, girl students and boy students as well.

00:10:36.189 --> 00:10:40.676
I used education for emancipation.

00:10:40.676 --> 00:10:42.771
I taught my girls,

00:10:42.771 --> 00:10:44.619
I taught my girl students,

00:10:44.619 --> 00:10:49.611
to unlearn the lesson of obedience.

00:10:49.611 --> 00:10:52.076
I taught my boy students

00:10:52.076 --> 00:10:57.764
to unlearn the lesson of so-called code of honor.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:02.042 --> 00:11:06.099
Dear brothers and sisters,

00:11:06.099 --> 00:11:10.557
we were striving for more rights for women,

00:11:10.557 --> 00:11:14.348
and we were struggling to have more,

00:11:14.348 --> 00:11:18.360
more, and more space for the women in society.

00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:21.680
But we came across a new phenomena.

00:11:21.680 --> 00:11:24.143
It was lethal to human rights

00:11:24.143 --> 00:11:27.838
and particularly to women rights.

00:11:27.838 --> 00:11:32.237
It was called Talibanization.

00:11:32.237 --> 00:11:35.971
It means a complete negation

00:11:35.971 --> 00:11:38.181
of women participation

00:11:38.181 --> 00:11:44.237
in all political, economical, and social activities.

00:11:44.237 --> 00:11:47.908
Hundreds of schools were lost.

00:11:47.908 --> 00:11:54.123
Girls were prohibited from going to school.

00:11:54.123 --> 00:11:57.676
Women were forced to wear veils

00:11:57.676 --> 00:12:01.524
and they were stopped from going to the markets.

00:12:01.524 --> 00:12:03.923
Musicians were silenced,

00:12:03.923 --> 00:12:05.880
girls were flogged,

00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:10.103
and singers were killed.

00:12:10.103 --> 00:12:11.776
Millions were suffering,

00:12:11.776 --> 00:12:14.298
but few, few spoke,

00:12:14.298 --> 00:12:16.691
and it was the most scary thing

00:12:16.691 --> 00:12:23.023
when you have all around such people

00:12:23.023 --> 00:12:25.051
who kill and who flog,

00:12:25.051 --> 00:12:26.714
and you speak for your rights.

00:12:26.714 --> 00:12:30.368
It's really the most scary thing.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:30.368 --> 00:12:32.291
At the age of 10,

00:12:32.291 --> 00:12:36.535
Malala stood and she stood for the right

00:12:36.535 --> 00:12:38.846
of education.

00:12:38.846 --> 00:12:43.465
She wrote a diary for the BBC blog,

00:12:43.465 --> 00:12:45.576
she volunteered herself

00:12:45.576 --> 00:12:49.293
for the New York Times documentaries,

00:12:49.293 --> 00:12:54.240
and she spoke from every platform she could.

00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:58.720
And her voice was the most powerful voice.

00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:04.911
It spread like a crescendo all around the world.

00:13:04.911 --> 00:13:06.688
And that was the reason the Taliban

00:13:06.688 --> 00:13:11.125
could not tolerate her campaign,

00:13:11.125 --> 00:13:14.062
and on 9 October 2012,

00:13:14.062 --> 00:13:19.831
she was shot in the head at point blank range.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:19.831 --> 00:13:23.976
It was a doomsday for my family and for me.

00:13:23.976 --> 00:13:29.472
The world turned into a big black hole.

00:13:29.472 --> 00:13:31.369
While my daughter was

00:13:31.369 --> 00:13:34.682
on the verge of life and death,

00:13:34.682 --> 00:13:38.690
I whispered into the ears of my wife,

00:13:38.690 --> 00:13:41.777
"Should I be blamed for what happened

00:13:41.777 --> 00:13:45.330
to my daughter and your daughter?"

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:47.330
And she abruptly told me,

00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:50.440
"Please don't blame yourself.

00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.639
You stood for the right cause.

00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:55.744
You put your life at stake

00:13:55.744 --> 00:13:57.208
for the cause of truth,

00:13:57.208 --> 00:13:58.343
for the cause of peace,

00:13:58.343 --> 00:14:00.375
and for the cause of education,

00:14:00.375 --> 00:14:02.439
and your daughter in inspired from you

00:14:02.439 --> 00:14:04.824
and she joined you.

00:14:04.824 --> 00:14:06.391
You both were on the right path

00:14:06.391 --> 00:14:09.702
and God will protect her."

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:09.702 --> 00:14:12.863
These few words meant a lot to me,

00:14:12.863 --> 00:14:17.359
and I didn't ask this question again.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:17.359 --> 00:14:20.758
When Malala was in the hospital,

00:14:20.758 --> 00:14:24.542
and she was going through the severe pains

00:14:24.542 --> 00:14:26.678
and she had had severe headaches

00:14:26.678 --> 00:14:30.604
because her facial nerve was cut down,

00:14:30.604 --> 00:14:32.732
I used to see a dark shadow

00:14:32.732 --> 00:14:38.269
spreading on the face of my wife.

00:14:38.269 --> 00:14:44.509
But my daughter never complained.

00:14:44.509 --> 00:14:46.431
She used to tell us,

00:14:46.431 --> 00:14:48.436
"I'm fine with my crooked smile

00:14:48.436 --> 00:14:51.044
and with my numbness in face.

00:14:51.044 --> 00:14:53.227
I'll be okay. Please don't worry."

00:14:53.227 --> 00:14:55.386
She was a solace for us,

00:14:55.386 --> 00:14:58.098
and she consoled us.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.818
Dear brothers and sisters,

00:15:04.818 --> 00:15:07.564
we learned from her how to be resilient

00:15:07.564 --> 00:15:10.530
in the most difficult times,

00:15:10.530 --> 00:15:13.492
and I'm glad to share with you

00:15:13.492 --> 00:15:19.461
that despite being an icon

00:15:19.461 --> 00:15:22.490
for the rights of children and women,

00:15:22.490 --> 00:15:27.598
she is like any 16-year old girl.

00:15:27.598 --> 00:15:32.961
She cries when her homework is incomplete.

00:15:32.961 --> 00:15:34.737
She quarrels with her brothers,

00:15:34.737 --> 00:15:38.583
and I am very happy for that.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:38.583 --> 00:15:40.863
People ask me,

00:15:40.863 --> 00:15:44.248
what special is in my mentorship

00:15:44.248 --> 00:15:46.880
which has made Malala so bold

00:15:46.880 --> 00:15:51.510
and so courageous and so vocal and poised?

00:15:51.510 --> 00:15:57.723
I tell them, don't ask me what I did.

00:15:57.723 --> 00:16:01.646
Ask me what I did not do.

00:16:01.646 --> 00:16:06.765
I did not clip her wings, and that's all.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:06.765 --> 00:16:09.415
Thank you very much.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:09.415 --> 00:16:14.911
(Applause)

00:16:14.911 --> 00:16:18.911
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause)