Inspiring Story of Young Activist Malala Yousafzai Told In ‘He Named Me Malala’

Sandra Miska

The story of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is being told in an inspiring new documentary.  “He Named Me Malala” follows the teenager and her family in their new life in England, as well as details the events that led to the attempt on her life by the Taliban that took place in her home country of Pakistan in 2012.

The “He” in the title refers to Malala’s father Ziauddin, her biggest champion.  Ziauddin felt an unbreakable bond with his daughter from the moment he first held her and had such high hopes for her that he named her after Malalai of Maiwand, the Joan of Arc of Afghanistan, who rallied local fights against invading British troops in 1880.  A lot of pressure to put on a little baby, but Malala proved to live up to her name in the years that followed.

According to statistics that have been recently brought to light by First Lady Michelle Obama, 62 million girls in the world are not in school.  Malala could have easily been among them, as she makes clear after she is pointedly asked what her life would’ve been like if she stayed back in rural Pakistan.

“If I had a normal father and a normal mother?  I’d have two kids by now,” said the then 17-year-old.

Using animation and archive footage, Malala’s story from birth up to her attack are shown.  Her activism started when she was 11 and a reporter from the BBC came to the school owned by Ziauddin looking for a female student to write an anonymous blog.  Around this time, the Taliban that had taken over the region had begun cracking down on education for girls.  After an older girl volunteered and then backed out due to her father’s fears, Ziauddin asked Malala to step in.  She eventually decided that writing anonymously wasn’t enough, and that she must speak out. This was a dangerous thing since the Taliban were killing those who spoke against them, but no one thought that even they would stoop to hurting a child.

There are plenty of light-hearted moments in the doc that show how normal Malala has remained, and at the end of the day, she is still a teenage girl who has crushes on professional athletes and struggles with her biology homework.

Davis Guggenheim, the man behind the Oscar-winning global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” directed “He Named Me Malala.”  He does an excellent job of presenting Malala as just a normal teenage girl who just happens to be helping to save the world in her spare time.  It may not be safe for Malala to return to Pakistan (the Taliban have said they will shoot her again if she comes back), but that doesn’t stop her from continuing her activism abroad, traveling to places like Syria and Kenya helping those in need.

Through all this, Malala has stayed humble.  It’s endearing to watch moments such as right before she is about to meet Jon Stewart, when she asks to be reminded the name of the television program, “The Daily Show,” or when she is being bombarded by flashing lights and reporters and struggles to make out who is asking what question.

One will leave the theater after viewing “He Named Me Malala” not only admiring Malala, who refuses to dwell on her pain and looks to the future, but perhaps more than a little inspired to help make a difference.

“He Named Me Malala” opens Oct. 2 in select theaters and everywhere Oct. 9.