Someone Special: Malala

Thursday: Point of View

A writing prompt from Mama Kat--"Write about someone special"--prompted me to post about Malala Yousafzai. I read her memoir two years ago, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, and made a note: we need strong females, such as Malala, portrayed in our movies.

Sometimes films give the impression that a strong female is one who can kill people with her bare hands, guns, or arrows, all while dressed in skin tight clothing revealing plenty of cleavage.

But it takes more courage to stand for what you believe, without violence. Malala is an example of such courage, and a superb example of a strong female.

As the title of her book reveals, Malala was attacked, shot at point blank range, for advocating education for girls.

In a recent Super Soul Sunday interview, she told Oprah that the attack changed nothing in her life "except that weakness, fear, and hopelessness died and strength, power, and courage was born. I feel stronger than before."

She is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and during the 2014 ceremonial speech she said, "I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up."

The recently released documentary, He Named Me Malala, tells her story. I am eager to see it.

Oprah said, "When we see a living, breathing example of real courage, it lets us know we can reach higher to be our bravest selves."

We need more examples of real courage, in life and in films.

Writing prompt from:

NOTE: When I linked this post to Mama Kat's blog, I didn't notice until too late that it chopped off the link title and reads "Someone Special: Mal"  I sent an email to Kat asking if it can be edited. I am new at this…lesson learned… double check the info before linking!