He Named Me Malala Shows the Teen Behind the Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Posted on August 28, 2015

The first trailer for the highly anticipated documentary He Named Me Malala has been released and it's quite powerful. The documentary is about Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban when she dared to speak out about girls deserving an education.

Malala's family owned schools in Pakistan in the Swat Valley which is under Taliban rule. She wrote articles and blogged for the BBC about life for young women under Taliban rule. Her advocacy got her marked for death by the Taliban, which forbids the education of girls. One day on a school bus, a hit squad showed up, asked for her by name and shot her in the head.

Malala was flown to England where she was treated for her severe injuries. She eventually recovered after a long rehabilitation program, and has made it her life's mission to advocate on behalf of young women and education. In this clip we see Malala giving speeches, teaching her father Zia to use an iPad and joking with her brothers. She speaks of her passion in life and how she does not feel anger against her attackers.

Malala says that if she had not had the parents she has, she would already be married and have two children by now (she was 17 at the time of the documentary and is now 18). Her father named her after Malalai, the famous Pashtun warrior and heroine who who died in battle. The doctors told Malala's family that if she recovered she might not be the same person. But Malala says, "They thought that bullet would silence us, but I am the same Malala."

Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 and has met many world leaders. But she is still a teenage girl who gets embarrassed when asked by a reporter about dating. Her story is inspiring and helps shine a light on the ghastly conditions that so many women live under in Taliban controlled areas. The documentary was directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman).

Malala will be a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 8th. She will talk about the film and her mission to give women the right to education. The film will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and will hit theaters on October 2nd. Take a look:

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