Emma Watson Interviews Malala and Campaigns for #HopeForOur Daughters

Nov 05, 2015

Posted by: Catherine

News, Watson

Yesterday, Emma Watson had the honor to sit down with women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai.

After being shot and almost killed for standing up for her right to go to school when the Taliban in Pakistan were trying to limit educational opportunities for women, Malala was not deterred from her beliefs that women should receive a minimum of 12 years equal education. She made it her mission.

The attempted assassination on her life brought a lot of attention to her cause, and brought about Pakistan’s first Right To Free and Compulsory Education Bill. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Through the Malala Fund, Malala is working to bring the number of girls out of school world wide (60 million) down to zero. (Read more about Malala’s story here, and her fund here.)

Emma Watson did some research about Malala’s activist campaign, as its goals align similarly with her HeForShe campaign. Watson was going to ask Malala if she ever considered herself a feminist, but took the question out of the interview the day before it was to occur. To Emma’s delight, Malala put it back in and opened up the dialogue of what it means to fight for women’s rights, and the stigma behind the word “feminist.” Both Malala and Emma would like the word “feminism” to be a synonym for “equality.”

Emma and Malala also talked about the role of religion in fighting for women’s equality. In a day and age where the doctrines of many religions are misinterpreted and misrepresented, especially Islam, Malala explains how her religion’s doctrines of peace work with her initiatives and not against them.

As Malala’s father is a huge part of Malala’s beliefs and helped her start her movement, Emma and Malala talk about the role of men in feminine movements. Emma Watson invites men to be involved in creating equality for women through her HeForShe campaign. Malala also recognizes the important role that both genders have in such movements.

When taking questions from the audience, Malala and Emma addressed the question about age. They encouraged young women, no matter how young they are, to make their voices heard. Malala used her personal story to show that even children, age 11 and younger, have a huge, important part in shaping movements and even leading them.

The video of Emma Watson’s interview with Malala can be seen below or on Emma’s Facebook page, where Emma posted it with a long message to her fans.

Into Film Festival opening Q&AToday I met Malala. She was giving, utterly graceful, compelling and intelligent. That might sound obvious but I was struck by this even more in person. There are lots of NGOs out there in the world doing great things… But if there were one I would put my money on to succeed and make change on this planet, it would be hers. (The Malala Fund). Malala isn’t messing around or mincing her words (one of the many reasons I love her). She has the strength of her convictions coupled with the kind of determination I rarely encounter… And it doesn’t seem to have been diminished by the success she has already had. And lastly…She has a sense of peace around her. I leave this for last because it is perhaps the most important. Maybe as a result of what she has been through? I personally think it is just who she is…Perhaps the most moving moment of today for me was when Malala addressed the issue of feminism. 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. To my utter shock Malala put the question back into one of her own answers and identified herself. Maybe feminist isn’t the easiest word to use… But she did it ANYWAY. You can probably see in the interview how I felt about this. She also gave me time at the end of the Q&A to speak about some of my own work, which she most certainly didn’t need to do, I was there to interview her. I think this gesture is so emblematic of what Malala and I went on to discuss. I’ve spoken before on what a controversial word feminism is currently. More recently, I am learning what a factionalized movement it is too. We are all moving towards the same goal. Let’s not make it scary to say you’re a feminist. I want to make it a welcoming and inclusive movement. Let’s join our hands and move together so we can make real change. Malala and I are pretty serious about it but we need you. With love, Emma x#HeNamedMeMalala #notjustamovieamovement Malala Fund Into Film

Posted by Emma Watson on Wednesday, November 4, 2015

 

Emma Watson also tweeted her support of the #HopeForOurDaughters campaign. #HopeForOurDaughters created a video that shows statistics that set women apart from men, and that disadvantage them where men have opportunities. The video shows that many statistics that were true in 1915 are still true today, 100 years later. The video campaign is formatted very similarly to Always’ “Like a Girl” Super Bowl commercial, that also wanted to bring awareness to how women are treated and how that impacts their self image. The #HopeForOurDaughters video can be see below:

 





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