Malala Yousafzai, the girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban when she was 14 for the apparent crime of trying to go to school, begins her GCSE exams today, according to The Sunday Times. Since the ordeal which took place in Swat, Pakistan, as well as moving to Birmingham to live and study, she has travelled the world to promote girls’ education rights, and up until last week, was still speaking out on issues.
She compared Boko Haram’s kidnapping of over 200 girls from their school in Chibok, north-east Nigeria to her own brutal experience. One of the reasons the extremist group took the girls is because they’re opposed to women’s education, just like the Taliban and other pro-Sharia groups across the world.
Malala said: ‘When I heard the news I was really shocked. As a 16-year-old getting ready for my own exams, I really identified with those girls as they were about my age and also doing exams. I’m so worried, I think about it all the time. Like me, those girls would have their hopes and dreams and be thinking about their future, then one night terrorists came and destroyed the whole dream.’
We hope that, in among all of this worry, she’s managed to knuckle down and get all of that pesky revision out of the way ahead of her exams. We’re totally sure she has, but fingers crossed her responsibility (entirely and bravely taken on at her own volition) won’t cast a shadow over her own education.
And, unlike our own Parliament, who have presumably run out of things to talk about – so much so that they’ve decided to take a holiday for the next 19 days – we’ll totally forgive Malala for taking a little time to focus on herself.
Good luck, Malala! And, um, if you’re reading this, please do stop and get back to your work.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.