Malala Yousafzai

Jeans was like the last thing that I was worried about.

To be honest, I was more worried about people taking photos if I were seen like with my friends at a party where we were maybe like dancing together.

I thought like all of these things could be taken out of context.

I was super aware of that.

But when it happened with jeans, I was like, okay, you know what?

I'm just gonna go for everything now because...

People could criticize anything, like people could even criticize you for your existence.

Where do you draw the line?

Yes, and I remember when I was in South Africa, I was giving a speech at the Nelson Mandela lecture, and I wanted to support the Afghan women's campaign of gender apartheid.

So they're calling leaders to recognize what's happening in the country as a gender apartheid because it is actually systemic oppression.

And they wanted to be considered as an international crime and the Taliban should be held accountable for it.

So I gave my speech.

I did my interviews.

You know, we had conversation with South African female activists and allies and everything went really well.

And then on the last night, like in the middle of my sleep, I just suddenly woke up and I was shaking and sweating and I had like this terrible panic attack where I thought, you know, I could just, I could die.

I...

I was sort of screaming, and yeah, it was terrifying.

But this time my husband was with me, and he was holding my hand, and he helped me and supported me.

So it was just a reminder that the fear is there, and the fear is for what other Afghan women and girls are experiencing right now.

It is terrifying.