CEO and co-founder of the Malala Fund Shiza Shahid addressed a large audience of UW-Madison students and community members Monday to share the story and strength of Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Malala Yousafzai.
“I am Malala,” Yousafzai’s autobiographical memoir and the 2014-’15 selection for UW-Madison’s common book program Go Big Read, outlines the young author’s struggles following a 2012 Taliban assault.
During her lecture, Shahid played a video clip from a 2009 CNN report that featured young girls with larger-than-life ambitions from Islamabad, Pakistan.
“I want to become president and [change] this country in a positive way,” a 12-year-old Pakistani girl told the CNN reporter in the video footage.
The young president-hopeful in the video was no other than Yousafzai, just three years before she was shot multiple times at point-blank range for speaking out in favor of Pakistani girls’ right to formal education. She was riding a bus home from school when the gunmen ordered the bus to stop so they could seek her out.
Many believed the gunshots would be fatal, but Yousafzai found the will to stay strong and stay alive so that she could share her story with others.
The Chancellor’s Convocation in late August distributed 5,000 copies of Yousafzai’s book to UW-Madison’s 2014 incoming freshman class. The book has since been used in courses campus-wide, ranging from anthropology to nursing.
Freshman Collin Ludwig is one of the several students on campus required to study “I Am Malala” in a course.
“I originally had to come to this [event] for my communication arts class,” Ludwig said. “But halfway into [the lecture] I got inspired to speak out on education myself and follow in Malala’s footsteps.”
Shahid centered her speech around four main ideas: the journey of growth and discovery, the power to create change, living a life of passion and constantly creating. Above all, Shahid encouraged the audience members to emulate Yousafzai by never forgetting their own personal strength.
“We [all] have our struggles. We [all] have our fears,” Shahid said. “By saying ‘I am Malala,’ we promise to try and be stronger than those fears, than whatever is holding us back. I want you to remember, you are Malala.”
