Malala Yousafzai

But as I got older, I realized that the price she had to pay for rebelling against the rules was so different than the price I have to pay or the price the next generation of women have to pay.

In her time, it was honor killing.

It was forced marriages.

It was this lack of opportunities around her.

So I one day asked my mom, and it was in the recent years,

when I myself was graduating from college and thinking about marriage.

And I asked my mom, what was your dream growing up?

And she said, well, you know, I wanted to just find a husband who was supportive so I could get to live in the city and have, you know, food and comfort and all of these things.

And I said, mom, that's like marriage.

I mean, what was your dream when you were growing up?

There was no answer.

And to this day, like my mom does not have an answer to what she wanted to be when she was a child because they could just never imagine themselves in a profession, in a job, earning for themselves, be out as active participants in the community or in public life because there were no role models.

There were like no women who they could relate to.

So for me, like, I could finally understand that, yes, like, my mom could just think, like, okay, you know, like, maybe, you know, how could it be different for my daughter?

They could not see that pathway.

Like, sure, my daughter is going into school now.

Things are slowly changing, but...

How much could it be different?

In the end, it might be just the same thing, marriage and having a slightly supportive husband so you don't have to face the terrible things.

And that's like the pathway that they see.