(electronic skittering)
(audience cheering)
- Welcome back.
My guest tonight,
she's an advocate
for girls' access to
education worldwide,
is the youngest person
ever to be nominated
for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Her new book is
called I Am Malala:
The Girl Who Stood
Up For Education
And Was Shot By The Taliban.
Please welcome to the program
Malala Yousafzai.
(rousing orchestral music)
(audience applause and cheering)
- Nice to see you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you for being here.
- Thank you so much.
It's an honor for me.
- It is an honor for us.
I know me. (laughter)
This is--
By the way, we talked a
little bit before the show.
Nothing feels better
than making you laugh.
I will say that.
I enjoyed that very much.
- (laughs) Thank you.
- I Am Malala.
It's honestly
humbling to meet you.
You're 16.
Where did your love for
education come from?
- We are human beings,
and this is the part
of our human nature,
that we don't learn
the importance of anything
until it's snatched
from our hands.
And when, in
Pakistan, when we were
stopped from going to
school, at that time,
I realize that education
is very important,
and education is
the power for women;
and that's why the terrorists
are afraid of education.
They do not want
women to get education
because then women would
become more powerful.
(audience applause)
- Exactly.
Exactly right.
When did the Taliban
come to Swat Valley?
Because before then,
you describe it
as a paradise, of sorts.
- The Taliban came in
2004, but at that time,
they were quite good.
They did not show their,
the terrorism and
they did not blast any
school at that time.
But they started the
real terrorism in 2007.
They have blasted more
than 400 schools in Swat.
They have slaughtered people,
and in the month
of January 2009,
they used to slaughter
even two, three people
every night, and they
have flogged women.
We have seen the
barbaric situation
of the 21st century,
and we have seen...
the cruelty, and we have
seen harsh days in our life;
and those we regarded as the
darkest days of our life.
So it was really hard
for us at that time.
- You describe, in the book,
still, no matter what,
they took the signs
off of schools.
They went underground.
But they continued
in the face of--
You spoke out publicly
against the Taliban.
What gave you the
courage to continue this?
- You know, my father was great
encouragement for me,
because he spoke of,
he spoke out for women's rights.
He spoke out for
girls' education.
At that time, I said
that, "Why shall I wait
"for someone else?
"Why shall I be looking
to the government,
"to the army, that
they would help us?
"Why don't I raise my voice?
"Why don't we speak
up for our rights?"
The girls of Swat, they
spoke up for their rights.
I started writing
diary, I spoke on every
media channel that I could,
and I raised my voice
on every platform that I could.
And I said, "I need
to tell the world
"what is happening in Swat;
"and I need to
tell the world that
"Swat is suffering
from terrorism,
"and we need to fight
against terrorism."
- When did you realize...
the Taliban had
made you a target?
- When, in 2012, we were--
I was with my father,
and someone came,
and she told us that,
"Have you seen on Google
"that if you search your name,
"the Taliban have
threatened you?"
And I just could not believe it.
I said, "No, it's not true."
And even after that
threat, when we saw it,
I was not worried
about myself that much.
I was worried about my father,
because we thought that
the Taliban are not
that much cruel, that
they would kill a child,
because I was 14 at that time.
But then later on,
I used to start--
I started thinking about that,
and I used to think
that the Talib
would come, and he
would just kill me.
But then I said, "If he comes,
"what would you do, Malala?"
Then I would reply myself that,
"Malala, just take
a shoe and hit him;"
but then I said... (laughter)
But then I said,
"If you hit a Talib
"with your shoe,
then there would be
"no difference between
you and the Talib.
"You must not treat
others that much
"with cruelty, and
that much harshly.
"You must fight others,
but through peace
"and through dialogue,
and through education."
Then I said, "I'll
tell him how important
"education is, and
that I even want
"education for your
children as well;"
and I would tell him, "that's
what I want to tell you.
"Now do what you want."
(audience applause and cheering)
- Um.
I wanna ask you.
I know your father is backstage,
and he's very proud of you.
But would he be mad...
If I adopted you?
(laughter)
Because you sure are swell.
Could you stick around?
I wanna talk a
little bit more about
Swat Valley and what it
was like growing up there,
and how people can get involved
through the Malala Fund,
and those types of things.
Do you have a
little bit of time?
- Yeah, yeah, sure.
- That would be wonderful.
Thank you so much.
I Am Malala is on
the bookshelves now.
Donate to the Malala Fund.
Visit www.malalafund.org .
Malala Yousafzai.
We'll be right back.
(rousing orchestral music)
(audience applause)
- Wonderful to
listen to you talk.
We're back: we're
talking to Malala.
The book I Am Malala is
on shelves right now.
Your love of school reminds
me so much of my children.
(laughter)
Okay, maybe not.
The people of Swat Valley.
When the Talib first came,
they thought they're
bringing order.
They're bringing services.
They established a
court that was faster
than Pakistani courts.
- Yeah.
- And the people responded.
When did that begin to turn?
- When the Taliban came,
they were trying to convince
people, and they were just
misusing the name of Islam,
and they were telling
people, "We will just set up
"another court for you,
and we will provide you
"justice on time;"
because usually, in courts
in Pakistan, people
dies and their case is
not yet resolving in the courts.
So that's what is happening
in the courts of Pakistan.
So people just said like,
"If the Taliban are doing it,
"why don't we support them?"
But then they were
that much crueler.
They started
slaughtering people,
and they even blasted a
generator of electricity
and it was the month of
Ramadan, in which we keep fast,
in which we don't
eat on the day,
in which we don't drink
for the whole day.
They blasted the
electricity generators,
which was providing electricity
to the whole city of Mingora;
and we could not have
water because it is,
electricity's related
to water supply as well.
And people were
sitting in the dark,
people could not buy
electricity generators,
people were just sitting
in the light of candles,
and people were just dying
of thirst at that time.
But my father is a great father,
because he bought
generator for the school
to create electricity and
to provide water to the street
and to that community, but still
many people were suffering from
that hard situation;
and other than that,
our freedom was taken from us.
- [Jon] Yes.
- The women's freedom.
We could not go to market,
we were not allowed
to go to school,
we were just kept imprisoned.
We were just limited to the
four walls of our house.
Women's rights were
denied at that time,
and that's why I spoke.
Because I believe in equality,
and I believe that
there is no difference
between a man and a woman.
I even believe that a woman
is more powerful than men.
- What, wait! Whoa!
(women cheering)
Wait, what? What?
(Malala laughing)
I-- wait!
(whistling)
You know, Malala...
This was going so well.
(laughter)
You were doing so beautifully,
and then suddenly, bam!
This is the part that they,
they began to say,
"You cannot dance.
- Yeah.
- "You cannot,
"the women cannot
do these things."
You say that many people
believe this is a...
wrong interpretation
of Islam, of the Koran.
Why have the Taliban,
and these more extreme groups,
been able to be successful?
Is it the fear that they
bring to these towns?
Is that why the people have had
a hard time throwing it off?
- The first thing is that,
they were really cruel.
They had Kalashnikovs, they
had guns in their hand.
And if I have a gun in my hand,
and I tell you
something, 'do this,'
you have to do that,
because it's for your life.
So there was fear all around.
That's why people
could not say anything.
Then the second thing
was that they were
misusing the name of Islam.
They were telling people that
"We are doing this for Islam,
"we are doing this for Allah,
"we are doing this for
Prophet, peace be upon him."
So essentially, they
were using religion
for their own personal benefit.
That's also the reason.
But then later on, people
tried to realize this,
and the girls are very brave.
And girls in our
school, like we were
at that time, we were
just 11 or 12 years old.
But we spoke up for our
rights to every media channel,
to every newspaper
that we could.
And we did not know at that
time that our small interview
would have an impact
or not, but it had.
Because we were
raising up our voice
and we were speaking
up for our rights.
And we were speaking
for peace in Swat.
We wanted to live a normal life,
because Swat is like
a paradise on Earth.
I believe in two paradises:
one I'll get after death,
but the other one
that is on Earth,
for me, that is Swat,
because Swat is
really beautiful,
and you would be
astonished when you see
the lush green hills,
and when you see
the tall mountains, and
the rivers that we have,
the crystal-clear water,
and you can find trout,
so it's really beautiful:
you'll love Swat.
- Malala, I'm from New Jersey.
(laughter and cheering)
So...
I know a little
something about paradise.
(laughter)
The beaches--
It does, it sounds
magnificent, and it's,
it is heartbreaking,
because you see what
these children want, and
what these people want,
is to just live in peace
without having this
imposed on them.
- Yeah.
- And I think--
We don't know what
to do to help.
You know, there are
passages in the book
about the United States.
And we come out great.
(laughter)
But there is, there are attacks
in Swat and in those
areas with drones,
and they talk about
a man, a CIA agent,
who shot two men in Lahore.
Raymond--
- Davis.
- And this is,
I think we have a common want
and desire, but perhaps
are not accomplishing it
in the manner that
shows the people...
how we feel; but in some ways,
we don't know what else to do.
What is your thought on that?
- I think that the people of
America, the United States,
they truly support
peace, and they say that
"We must not fight
against war through war."
They believe that
dialogue is the best way.
And we must try to
find a solution for it.
And in my opinion, the
solution that would work
to fight all these wars
and all these problems
that people are facing,
is only education.
Because you can--
you can stop war for a second,
but you don't know it
would start again or not.
We have seen First World War,
we have seen Second World War,
and I think Third
World War is coming;
but I believe that
we must stop it now.
I don't want to see a Third
World War in this world again.
And the best way to fight
against this war is education
because, as we can see,
the children are suffering
from terrorism, they are
suffering from child labor
and child trafficking.
They are also suffering from
the cultural norms
and tradition.
These are, there is
not only one issue
that we are facing through.
There are many others as well.
So I think education
is the best way.
People will be thinking,
just going to school,
learning about chemistry,
and physics, and maths,
and that's it.
Going to school is not
only learning about
different subjects: it
teaches you communication,
it teaches you how to live
a life, it teaches you
about history, it teaches you
about how science is working.
And other than that, you
learn about equality;
because students are
provided the same benches,
they sit equally, it
shows us equality,
it teaches students how to
live with others together,
how to accept each
other's language,
how to accept each
other's traditions
and each other's religion.
It also teaches us justice.
It also teaches us respect.
It teaches us how
to live together.
So that's why I support the,
I support the idea of
sending children to school,
because it is the best
way to fight terrorism.
And I want people to
support us in this cause,
and through Malala
Foundation, we want to work
for education of girls in
the developing countries,
especially in Syria now.
They are suffering,
they are homeless now.
We want to help
children in Afghanistan,
because they have been suffering
from terrorism for decades.
We want to help the
children of India as well,
because they are
victims of child labor.
So I think issues and
problems are enormous;
but solution is one,
and that is simple.
That is education.
(Jon stammering)
(audience applause and cheering)
- I am humbled.
Humbled, to speak with you.
- Thank you.
- I will say this.
I don't know where you
come from, (laughter)
but I am very glad you're here.
Thank you for being here today.
(audience applause and cheering)
You're wonderful.
Please, get the book,
donate to the Malala Fund
by visiting www.malalafund.org .
Malala Yousafzai.
(audience applause and cheering)
