WEBVTT

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In many patriarchal societies and tribal societies,

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fathers are usually known by their sons,

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but I'm one of the few fathers

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who is known by his daughter,

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and I am proud of it.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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Malala started her campaign for education

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and stood for her rights in 2007,

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and when her efforts were honored in 2011,

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and she was given the national youth peace prize,

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and she became a very famous,

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very popular young girl of her country.

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Before that, she was my daughter,

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but now I am her father.

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Ladies and gentlemen,

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if we glance to human history,

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the story of women

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is the story of injustice,

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inequality,

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violence and exploitation.

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You see,

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in patriarchal societies,

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right from the very beginning,

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when a girl is born,

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her birth is not celebrated.

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She is not welcomed,

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neither by father nor by mother.

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The neighborhood comes

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and commiserates with the mother,

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and nobody congratulates the father.

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And a mother is very uncomfortable

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for having a girl child.

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When she gives birth to the first girl child,

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first daughter, she is sad.

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When she gives birth to the second daughter,

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she is shocked,

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and in the expectation of a son,

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when she gives birth to a third daughter,

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she feels guilty like a criminal.

NOTE Paragraph

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Not only the mother suffers,

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but the daughter, the newly born daughter,

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when she grows old,

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she suffers too.

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At the age of five,

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while she should be going to school,

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she stays at home

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and her brothers are admitted in a school.

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Until the age of 12, somehow,

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she has a good life.

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She can have fun.

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She can play with her friends in the streets,

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and she can move around in the streets

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like a butterfly.

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But when she enters her teens,

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when she becomes 13 years old,

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she is forbidden to go out of her home

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without a male escort.

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She is confined under the four walls of her home.

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She is no more a free individual.

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She becomes the so-called honor

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of her father and of her brothers

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and of her family,

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and if she transgresses

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the code of that so-called honor,

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she could even be killed.

NOTE Paragraph

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And it is also interesting that this so-called

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code of honor,

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it does not only affect the life of a girl,

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it also affects the life

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of the male members of the family.

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I know a family of seven sisters and one brother,

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and that one brother,

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he has migrated to the Gulf countries,

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to earn a living for his seven sisters

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and parents,

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because he thinks that it will be humiliating

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if his seven sisters learn a skill

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and they go out of the home

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and earn some livelihood.

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So this brother,

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he sacrifices the joys of his life

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and the happiness of his sisters

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at the altar of so-called honor.

NOTE Paragraph

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And there is one more norm

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of the patriarchal societies

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that is called obedience.

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A good girl is supposed to be

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very quiet, very humble

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and very submissive.

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It is the criteria.

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The role model good girl should be very quiet.

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She is supposed to be silent

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and she is supposed to accept the decisions

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of her father and mother

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and the decisions of elders,

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even if she does not like them.

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If she is married to a man she doesn't like

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or if she is married to an old man,

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she has to accept,

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because she does not want to be dubbed

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as disobedient.

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If she is married very early,

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she has to accept.

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Otherwise, she will be called disobedient.

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And what happens at the end?

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In the words of a poetess,

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she is wedded, bedded,

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and then she gives birth
to more sons and daughters.

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And it is the irony of the situation

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that this mother,

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she teaches the same lesson of obedience

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to her daughter

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and the same lesson of honor to her sons.

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And this vicious cycle goes on, goes on.

NOTE Paragraph

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Ladies and gentlemen,

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this plight of millions of women

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could be changed

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if we think differently,

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if women and men think differently,

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if men and women in the
tribal and patriarchal societies

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in the developing countries,

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if they can break a few norms

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of family and society,

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if they can abolish the discriminatory laws

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of the systems in their states,

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which go against the basic human rights

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of the women.

NOTE Paragraph

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Dear brothers and sisters, when Malala was born,

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and for the first time,

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believe me,

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I don't like newborn children, to be honest,

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but when I went and I looked into her eyes,

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believe me,

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I got extremely honored.

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And long before she was born,

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I thought about her name,

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and I was fascinated with a heroic

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legendary freedom fighter in Afghanistan.

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Her name was Malalai of Maiwand,

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and I named my daughter after her.

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A few days after Malala was born,

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my daughter was born,

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my cousin came --

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and it was a coincidence --

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he came to my home

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and he brought a family tree,

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a family tree of the Yousafzai family,

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and when I looked at the family tree,

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it traced back to 300 years of our ancestors.

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But when I looked, all were men,

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and I picked my pen,

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drew a line from my name,

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and wrote, "Malala."

NOTE Paragraph

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And when she grow old,

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when she was four and a half years old,

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I admitted her in my school.

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You will be asking, then, why should I mention about

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the admission of a girl in a school?

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Yes, I must mention it.

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It may be taken for granted in Canada,

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in America, in many developed countries,

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but in poor countries,

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in patriarchal societies, in tribal societies,

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it's a big event for the life of girl.

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Enrollment in a school means

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recognition of her identity and her name.

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Admission in a school means

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that she has entered the world of dreams

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and aspirations

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where she can explore her potentials

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for her future life.

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I have five sisters,

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and none of them could go to school,

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and you will be astonished,

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two weeks before,

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when I was filling out the Canadian visa form,

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and I was filling out the family part of the form,

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I could not recall

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the surnames of some of my sisters.

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And the reason was

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that I have never, never seen the names

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of my sisters written on any document.

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That was the reason that

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I valued my daughter.

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What my father could not give to my sisters

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and to his daughters,

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I thought I must change it.

NOTE Paragraph

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I used to appreciate the intelligence

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and the brilliance of my daughter.

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I encouraged her to sit with me

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when my friends used to come.

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I encouraged her to go with
me to different meetings.

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And all these good values,

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I tried to inculcate in her personality.

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And this was not only she, only Malala.

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I imparted all these good values

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to my school, girl students 
and boy students as well.

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I used education for emancipation.

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I taught my girls,

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I taught my girl students,

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to unlearn the lesson of obedience.

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I taught my boy students

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to unlearn the lesson of so-called pseudo-honor.

NOTE Paragraph

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Dear brothers and sisters,

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we were striving for more rights for women,

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and we were struggling to have more,

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more and more space for the women in society.

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But we came across a new phenomenon.

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It was lethal to human rights

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and particularly to women's rights.

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It was called Talibanization.

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It means a complete negation

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of women's participation

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in all political, economical and social activities.

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Hundreds of schools were lost.

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Girls were prohibited from going to school.

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Women were forced to wear veils

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and they were stopped from going to the markets.

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Musicians were silenced,

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girls were flogged

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and singers were killed.

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Millions were suffering,

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but few spoke,

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and it was the most scary thing

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when you have all around such people

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who kill and who flog,

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and you speak for your rights.

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It's really the most scary thing.

NOTE Paragraph

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At the age of 10,

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Malala stood, and she stood for the right

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of education.

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She wrote a diary for the BBC blog,

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she volunteered herself

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for the New York Times documentaries,

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and she spoke from every platform she could.

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And her voice was the most powerful voice.

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It spread like a crescendo all around the world.

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And that was the reason the Taliban

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could not tolerate her campaign,

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and on October 9 2012,

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she was shot in the head at point blank range.

NOTE Paragraph

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It was a doomsday for my family and for me.

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The world turned into a big black hole.

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While my daughter was

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on the verge of life and death,

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I whispered into the ears of my wife,

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"Should I be blamed for what happened

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to my daughter and your daughter?"

NOTE Paragraph

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And she abruptly told me,

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"Please don't blame yourself.

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You stood for the right cause.

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You put your life at stake

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for the cause of truth,

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for the cause of peace,

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and for the cause of education,

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and your daughter in inspired from you

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and she joined you.

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You both were on the right path

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and God will protect her."

NOTE Paragraph

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These few words meant a lot to me,

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and I didn't ask this question again.

NOTE Paragraph

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When Malala was in the hospital,

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and she was going through the severe pains

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and she had had severe headaches

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because her facial nerve was cut down,

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I used to see a dark shadow

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spreading on the face of my wife.

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But my daughter never complained.

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She used to tell us,

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"I'm fine with my crooked smile

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and with my numbness in my face.

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I'll be okay. Please don't worry."

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She was a solace for us,

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and she consoled us.

NOTE Paragraph

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Dear brothers and sisters,

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we learned from her how to be resilient

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in the most difficult times,

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and I'm glad to share with you

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that despite being an icon

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for the rights of children and women,

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she is like any 16-year old girl.

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She cries when her homework is incomplete.

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She quarrels with her brothers,

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and I am very happy for that.

NOTE Paragraph

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People ask me,

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what special is in my mentorship

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which has made Malala so bold

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and so courageous and so vocal and poised?

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I tell them, don't ask me what I did.

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Ask me what I did not do.

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I did not clip her wings, and that's all.

NOTE Paragraph

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Thank you very much.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)

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Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause)