Watson interviewed Malala at the premiere of her film, He Named Me Malala, and during their conversation Yousafzai detailed her thought process on calling herself a feminist. Malala highlighted men’s role in making equality a reality. More recently, I am learning what a factionalized movement it is too.
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Watson primarily asked questions that had been submitted previously by students in the audience.
Yousafzai admitted that she was one of the people inspired by Watson’s speech, stating that men “have to step forward” to promote equality of the sexes.
“This word, feminism, has been a tricky word”. When I heard it the first time, I heard a few negative responses and a few positive ones, and I hesitated in saying am I a feminist or not? Then after hearing your speech, when you said ‘if not me, who?
To celebrate the release of He Named Me Malala in cinemas this Friday, we’re offering you the chance to win a signed poster by documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim.
Watson was visibly moved during the interview.
Emma and Malala covered a variety of topics including education, and identifying with feminism as a symbol of human equality.
Malala also pointed out that the definition of feminism is largely forgotten.
Watson also became known for her feminist campaigning previous year (14) when she launched the HeForShe event with United Nations Women, and the pair teamed up in Birmingham on Wednesday for a chat as part of the Into Film Festival. “In fact, statistically, very few have been”.
The 25-year-old UN Women ambassador posted video of the Q&A to her Facebook page, admitting she’d decided against asking Yousafzai whether she was a feminist after researching the “utterly graceful” activist and seeing she hadn’t identified herself as such.
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The film will go behind the scenes of Malala Yousafzai’s inspirational life, which has seen her shot by the Taliban in her home town on Pakistan, and singled out, along with her father, for advocating girls education. It was her efforts that won her the Nobel Peace Prize.
