You may not know Ziauddin Yousafzai, but he is girls’ rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai’s father and he’s totally happy to be known through his daughter's bravery and accomplishments.
‘Malala used to be known as my daughter, but now I’m known as her father,' he told TED’s 2014 conference in Vancouver, Canada. ‘In patriarchal societies, fathers are known by their sons. I am known by my daughter and I’m proud of it.’
Ziauddin was a teacher in Swat Valley, Pakistan, in 2012, when his 14-year-old daughter Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban while on a school bus. Her crime? Going to school.
Although the Taliban have outlawed the education of women in Swat (seriously, WTF?!), Ziauddin, a women's rights campaigner and teacher, hadn’t taken Malala out of his school. And she hadn’t stopped going. Thankfully, Malala recovered from the ordeal after surgery in the UK, and they live here now as she is such a threat to the Taliban’s regime.
However, both avid human rights campaigners focusing on young women’s right to education, Malala and her father won't be stopped by the Taliban. They now travel the world so she can speak at events, most recently at the Women Of The World Festival in London.
And Ziauddin's got lots to say, too. During his talk, he explained what life is like for women in Pakistan: ‘The story of a woman is a story of injustice, inequality, violence and exploitation,’ he said. ‘When a girl is born… she's not welcomed, neither by father nor by mother. At the age of five, when she should be going to school, she stays at home. When she turns 13, she's forbidden to leave her home without a male escort. She becomes the so-called honour of her father, brothers and her family. If she transgresses the code of that so-called honour, she could be killed.’
As a teacher, he didn’t only encourage equality though his own children, but tried to change society through his own classrooms. He taught girls ‘to unlearn obedience' and he ‘taught my boy students to unlearn so-called “honour.”’
Hopefully, by telling his story and raising awareness about the state of education in Pakistan, the right people will hear and be able to do something about empowering the women in the region. Or any other region where women are treated in such a medieval way. How's that for being a cool dad?
(We'll link to the full talk when it's made available online)
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Wenn
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.