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03/29/2024 01:35:16 am

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Malala Yousafzai Calls Herself 'Feminist' After Hearing Emma Watson's Speech

Malala Yousafzai, Emma Watson

(Photo : Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images) Malala Yousafzai speaks at a press conference during the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations.

United Nations Goodwill ambassadress and Harry Potter star Emma Watson on Wednesday sat down for an interview with Malala Yousafzai for the upcoming documentary "He Named Me Malala." The Nobel Peace Prize awardee from Pakistan told Watson the she inspired her to call herself a "feminist."

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A video of the interview shows the two women with totally different views and backgrounds conversing comfortably and exchanging ideas, universal notions and advocacy. The said clip was uploaded on Watson's official Facebook page and has gone viral in two days with over 4 million views.

In the interview, Yousafzai tells Watson that her #HeForShe speech on feminism at the UN Headquarters in September 2014 inspired her to call herself, for the first time, a feminist.

"This word, feminism, it has been a very tricky word and when I heard it the first time, I heard some negative responses and some positive ones," said the 18-year-old Pakistani human rights and education advocate. "I hesitated in saying I am a feminist or not and then after hearing your speech, when you said 'if not now, when? If not me, who?' I decided that there's no way and there's nothing wrong by calling yourself a feminist, and I am a feminist."

Malala Yousafzai is a teenage schoolgirl famous in Britain. At an early age of 15, she was shot in the head by the Taliban after writing her thoughts on education rights for girls for the BBC. She was brought to UK to recover and has been actively fighting for women's welfare since then. At 18, she began sending speeches to world leaders, became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, and had July 12 declared "Malala Day" in her honor. She has also co-authored a memoir.

In a post by Watson, she describes Malala as "utterly graceful, compelling and intelligent... and has a source of peace around her." She further added "To give you some background, I had initially planned to ask Malala whether or not she was a feminist but then researched to see whether she had used this word to describe herself. Having seen that she hadn't, I decided to take the question out before the day of our interview."

"I've spoken before on what a controversial word feminism is currently. More recently, I am learning what a factionalised movement it is too. We are all moving towards the same goal. Let's not make it scary to say you're a feminist. Malala and I are pretty serious about it but we need you," Watson wrote.

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