The difference is that she also happens to be the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize as an activist for female education and for bettering the lives of children, and who regularly meets with heads of state, celebrities, and those in need to share her concerns, passion, and help.
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Starting with her slow, painful recovery from the October 2012 attack, Guggenheim shows how her close-knit ties to here two brothers and parents brought her back from the brink.
The attack was claimed by the militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah, head of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The title refers to a hero in regional folklore (essentially the Afghani Joan of Arc) who Malala was named after by her progressive father. The blog described life under the Taliban.
College Times spoke with Guggenheim about his favorite moments with Malala and how her courage is influencing young girls all over the world. At one point Guggenheim challenges Malala on her refusal to talk about whatever “pain” she has experienced, and when she demurs, one can hardly blame her. She makes bemused observations on her British classmates who all seem to have boyfriends, and she debates Atal over whether their fellow Pashtun and superstar cricketer Shahid Afridi has lost a step with his age.
Although it is a powerful story on political and historical levels, the failed attempted assassination of Malala is only half the story. It’s a bad name, it means sad.’ But my father would always say, ‘No, it has another meaning.
The screening of “He Named Me Malala” is for the nationwide girl education campaign to educate the more than 6 million Nigerian girls out of school and part of the global movement of The Malala fund to empower girls through secondary school education tagged “The power of the adolescent girl: vision for 2030”. Guggenheim’s film explores whether the father who gave his daughter such a bold name fated (or even coerced, as a few have accused) her to become a near-martyr. “He Named Me Malala” gets good marks as a laudatory piece about a genuinely valiant young woman, but it could use a modest dose of objectivity.
So, the film raises the question: What formed Malala into the person she is today?
As a father of two girls, the director said he felt a personal connection to Malala’s story. She replies “I am still an ordinary girl”.
The film follows her at school, in the streets of New York, at a refugee camp, spreading her optimistic and determined message on the right to education. While Malala’s clearly independently passionate about her cause, she just as clearly was pointed in that direction pretty much from birth.
Malala Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin, in a scene from the new documentary “He Named Me Malala“. Not just because of her advocacy group but because she is a very, very deep soul. “He let me do what I wanted”. It is easy to say “you can do anything.’ But do they believe it?” I want to progress.
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“And I still feel that even here in the west and in the rest of the world society still favors boys. Malala got the best of both of them”.
