The book I am Malala is about a teenage girl who stood up for her right to be educated and was shot by the Taliban. I am Malala is an autobiography by Malala Yousifeisa and co-written by Kristina Lamb was published on the 8th of October 2013.

Malala Yousafiza was shot less than seven years ago because she stood up for and fought for the right for girls to have an education. In Afghanistan, Malalas home, the Taliban, which is an extremist group, was taking over her country with their strict Islamic beliefs. Beliefs such as the one what woman are second class citizens and only lived to be a loyal and serving wife and mother for Islamic men. “Our men think earning money and ordering around others is where power lies. They don’t think power is in the hands of the woman who takes care of everyone all day long, and gives birth to their children.”- Malala. The book I am Malala unearths this idea of feminism. This book made me reflect and realise why we have this movement. More than anything this book made me feel gratitude for my own good fortune but anger for the inequality that still sculptors societies today.

I get upset when I see racism but I will never truly understand this prejudice because of my white privilege. But when I read books like ‘I am Malala’ I feel her pain like nothing else. My life sufferings aren’t even a quarter to the extreme of hers but they come from the same root of a problem, sexism. Sexism is something all woman and girls are exposed to. Every female in every country, in every town witnesses and is a victim of sexisim sometime in their life.

Sexism is something we need to challenge. Sexism is a crime I witness daily. Committed by the boys in our school and the men in our community. As a society, we have normalised it. We sandpapered down the edges and made it okay and acceptable, which it’s not. Society has made being a female or a girl a disability, a put down which is something that it is not. But the thing that angers me the most is that we are pushed down and shunted aside when we try to stand up for ourselves, speak up and push back against sexism. The book My Name is Malala provides every girl, every young aspiring female with a role model, a leader who despite everything, despite all barriers has never backed down and never stopped fighting.

Malala was privileged unlike many, especially in Afganistan, to have an inspiring male role model in her life growing up. Malala describes her father as her hero and her saving grace through most of her life. “My father always said, Malala will be as free as a bird”- Malala. Malala was fortunate unlike many to be introduced to the wonders and world of education from a very young age as her father Ziauddin Yousafzai ran a school in her home town in the Swatt Valley, Afganistan. When her father’s school got bombed and the Taliban tightened rules and regimes against women education, Malala began to speak out against the beliefs of the Taliban, and stand up for her and her friends right to go to school, the Taliban started to target her and her father. Malala and her friends continued to go to school in private because Malala believed that there was no greater gift or weapon than that of education. “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world”- Malala.

The book my Name is Malala was one of my first greatest introductions to this movement feminism and one of the biggest triggers to understand fully why this movement exists and why we need it. Feminism to many isn’t a word of empowerment its a word of threat that comes with an idea of a world populated and dominated by females where men are towed around on leads like dogs. This is not the reality. “Feminism is just another word for equality”- Malala. The definition for a feminist is someone who believes in the social, political and economical equality of the sexes as Beyonce rightly stated. Shouldn’t we encourage all humans to be like this, male or female? I believe men get the wrong idea due to the presence of the word female within the word feminism. But the feminist movement started in order to help women attain equality and reflects the fact that women have historically be disfranchised and silenced. We need to raise our boys to not see the movement of feminism as a threat but instead as an opportunity.

The Taliban extremist are a group of muslim men, men not women. Women are forbinned to join this malicous society as they are not demed worthy enough by Allah (muslim god). So, therefore, it was a group of vindictive men that shot Malala, not women. I’m not trying to place the blame here. But in sexist society it is not women who are upolding and enforcing sexism upon themselves it is the men. Therefore we need to go back and start at the beginning, start at birth, by teaching our boys to love the women in their lives not supress them.

We need to teach our boys that empowering woman does not mean belittling or punishing men, me too duffer from gender discrimination. Feminism believes that every person should be viewed based on their individual strengths and capabilities as a human being, not the strengths and capabilities assumed of their gender. If you’re a feminist you believe women should be treated the same as men not because we are ‘better’ but because we are both humans. Men are not our greatest enemies, They should be our greatest allies moving forward. Modern society can be poisonous to our men selling them a glamorous and unrealistic norm on the way that they should be and in turn the way that they should treat females. (ie porn and toxic masculinity) Men are given made-up ideas that they are forced to subscribe to and are belittled and rejected when they show signs of sensitivity, mocked and insulted when they show pain or care too much. As women, females and girls we have a lot to undo. And when we stand up and challenge sexism, like Malala, and educate our men, we create destruction in the normalised sexist society and change happens. A strong woman is something to be celebrated not feared, crushed, discouraged or controlled. “There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.” – Malala

Malala taught me that if you want to see a change you have got to be the change you want to see in the world. “I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard… we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” – Malala Yousafzai. I fear that too many women are taking the back seat when it comes to equality and normalising this prejudice. And this is not okay. Because sexism is not okay. I want to create a world where my children can get the same opportunities and chances be they any sex, male or female. I want to cultivate kids in a world where being a girl is not a putdown but an encouragement, an understood gift. Gender equality is a human fight, not just a female fight.