Malala Yousafzai

There was peace.

And I also felt lucky that I was living in a house where I had a supportive father.

So I knew that this was not normal for a lot of girls.

So there were many cultural challenges.

We very much lived in a patriarchal society.

And the society was very segregated for women and girls.

So it was not as common for girls to be allowed into school or women to be allowed into work.

But, you know, it was evolving.

It was changing.

And my father was part of that change because he saw his own five sisters never went to school.

So he realized that it is gender-based discrimination.

If you're born a girl, your life looks very different.

So when he became a father, when I was born, he said that he would allow his daughter to be in school and allow her to be able to follow her dreams.

So that was quite different, wasn't it?

It was truly like a privilege.

It was brave.

It was very feminist, you know, for our community.

And, you know, I like I have I have stories when I share it with people.

It makes no sense to people when I explain that my school best friend in Pakistan wanted to participate in a speech competition.

And her older brother told her that she could not go and speak in public.