Malala Yousafzai Credits Emma Watson With Inspiring Her to Identify as a Feminist
In an interview with UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai said she she was inspired to describe herself as a feminist after hearing Watson’s “He for She” speech on gender equality last year.
“Interestingly, this word feminism, it has been a very tricky word,” Yousafzai said. “When I heard it the first time, I heard some negative responses and some positive ones, and I hesitated in saying, ‘Am I a feminist or not?'”
Yousafzai told Watson that after hearing her UN speech, she decided to label herself a feminist.
“When you said, ‘if not now, when? if not me, who?’, I decided there’s nothing wrong by calling yourself a feminist,” Yousafzai continued. “So I am a feminist, and we all should be feminists because feminism is another word for equality.”
Yousafzai added that “just because your gender is different does not mean you should be treated differently,” or confined to specific jobs. “Your gender should not create any difficulty in the choices that you make. It’s about equality, it’s about feminism, it’s about saying, ‘we’re all human beings, why do you separate us just because our gender is different?'” she said.
Yousafzai said she has yet to decide which American political side she leans more to, but did say, “I really do think America needs a woman president.” Watson agreed.
In an interview with Ronan Farrow last year, Yousafzai said she believes “everyone has equal rights as men have,” but declined to identify as a feminist.
In a Facebook post, Watson said she “initially planned to ask Malala whether or not she was a feminist,” but decided against it after seeing Yousafzai had not “used this word to describe herself.”
“To my utter shock Malala put the question back into one of her own answers and identified herself,” Watson wrote. “Maybe feminist isn’t the easiest word to use… But she did it ANYWAY.”
Watch the video above, via the Guardian.
[Image via screengrab]
—
