Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is speaking to sold-out crowds in California in advance of her documentary film — He Named Me Malala, scheduled for October release. (Watch the trailer.) She also made a TV appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on June 18, the day after the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina.
Stewart asked her for her thoughts on humanity in the wake of the Charleston massacre. Here’s what Malala had to say:
“I have seen these kind of situations in my life when there is no justice; when there is no human feeling, then there is no humanity, and for a second you think that no one has feelings at all”…“But our prayers are with the families. We pray for peace and for the prosperity of everyone.”
It was the second time Jon Stewart has interviewed her on The Daily Show. Her first interview with him took place just days before she received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, and she left Stewart speechless when she described how she reacted when she learned that the Taliban wanted her dead. (Watch the full 2013 interview here.)
…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 to myself, ‘Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.’ 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 with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.’ Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that ‘I even want education for your children as well.’
In her second interview with Jon Stewart, the host and Malala kept things real by chatting about her younger brothers, her studies, and denying the claims by some that she has been forced into a public role. Malala encouraged the kids of the world to speak up for their rights. She emphasized that people should not wait and expect leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther Kind, Jr., and Nelson Mandela to rise up among them, but to realize that anyone can take action and speak.
Malala was perhaps most impassioned when speaking about activism and girls education. Watch the video for the complete interview:
https://youtu.be/LIjXDkAIt-8
