Malala Yousafzai during advocacy work in Pakistan in 2022.
Courtesy of Malala Fund
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai is hoping to help young people “find their way” when she makes a stop in Connecticut at the end of the month.
She is set to visit the Shubert Theatre in New Haven on Oct. 26 as part of the “Malala Yousafzai: Finding My Way” book tour. The tour is to celebrate the upcoming release of Yousafzai’s new memoir, “Finding My Way,” set to release on Oct. 21. She will talk about her journey from “high school loner to reckless college student to a young woman at peace with her past,” according to the event description.
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The Nobel laureate said she visited the Nutmeg State once before, but didn’t get an opportunity to do much. She hopes that during her stop later this month, she will get the chance to see Yale University as well as iconic places like Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.
“I’m so excited to speak there,” Yousafzai said.
Malala Yousafzai visiting the IIE Higher Education Readiness (HER) program in Ethiopia.
Courtesy of Malala Fund
Yousafzai said that readers of her new book might be surprised to learn about her sense of humor. She said that while the book explores topics she’s covered before, it also explores things that she is “not so proud of.”
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“I wanted to be true to myself. My humor is something that really helps me in everything that I do,” Yousafzai said. “I’m excited for everybody to read the book, especially college students. I hope that it helps us open up some of these important conversations around mental health and getting support.”
Yousafzai was recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her advocacy for “the right of every child to receive an education,” the Nobel Prize’s website reads. When the Taliban took over the Swat Valley in Pakistan and burned down schools for girls, Yousafzai kept a diary of the events. The diary, which criticized the Taliban, was published in 2009 by BBC Urdu. A Taliban gunman shot her in the head in 2012 while she was on a school bus, but she survived. A year later, she spoke at the United Nations to call for “equal right to education for girls all over the world,” the Nobel Prize’s website adds. She continues to advocate for women’s education years later.
She found out she won the award while she was in chemistry class at Edgbaston High School for Girls in England. She finished the school day, adding that at the time, she wanted to make friends but was struggling to adjust to the culture outside of her native Pakistan. She was 17 at the time, making her the award’s youngest recipient.
“I thought if you get a Nobel Peace Prize for girls’ education, you have to finish school,” Yousafzai said. “The day when I won the Nobel Peace Prize, I felt that a lot more students approached me and looked towards me, but then the next day, it was back to the old way it was. By the end of my school time, I had only made one friend.”
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Malala Yousafzai during her time at Lady Margaret Hall.
Courtesy of Malala Yousafzai
She continued her education, graduating from Lady Margaret Hall, a constituent college of the University of Oxford. She said she had one goal: “to make as many friends as I could.” She achieved that goal, as well as earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 2020.
“I’m glad I balanced my time between studying and socializing, because it’s really hard to maintain all the academic pressure and at the same time, you want to grow, you want to make friends. You want to learn from them. You don’t want to be just stuck in the library,” Yousafzai said. “My friends helped me learn so much about myself and I felt so comfortable around them to be myself.”
Yousafzai said that during university, she struggled greatly with anxiety as flashbacks of her near-death experience at the hands of the Taliban. To overcome her struggles, she said that the most important thing that she learned was “it was ok to ask for help” and she was “not alone.” On the advice of her friends, she decided to see a therapist. She advocates for young people who struggle to do the same.
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“Growing up in Pakistan, I had seen how much stigma was attached to mental health, and I myself would roll my eyes. I would never consider therapy, but at a time when I saw no way out, I knew that maybe therapy could help me. And I’m so glad that I considered it for myself,” Yousafzai said.
In her spare time, Yousafzai said that she has been enjoying physical activity and trying different sports. She added that she follows women’s soccer and the WNBA, noting that it would be a “dream come true to meet Caitlin Clark.”
Malala Yousafzai while getting married in 2021.
Courtesy of Malin Fezehai
“My husband introduced me to the gym. Before that, I would just sit on the sofa the whole day. He said, ‘You need to move around a bit.’ So now I have become a gym bro. I do weightlifting, running and I love it,” Yousafzai said. “I’m learning skiing and golf…but I’m giving a try to every sport right now…Cricket (has been my favorite) my whole life.”
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This year, she and her husband started a new program called Recess Capital to help support women’s sports. The program aims to invest financially in sports teams and leagues, as well as growing sports-adjacent businesses that support the professional careers of women.
“Girls should have equal opportunities as boys to be able to play sports and have a career in it,” Yousafzai said.
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Yousafzai also said that she aims to continue to advocate for world leaders to invest in and advocate for women’s education. She added that she hopes world leaders will support Afghan women activists speaking out against the Taliban’s suppression of women. According to UNICEF, the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan has banned adolescent girls from getting an education for the past four years.
“There should be no compromises on women’s rights. The Taliban should not be normalized. They should be held accountable for the crimes that they’re committing,” Yousafzai said.
