Student Guest Post: "He Named Me Malala" Reflection

Recently our entire school went to see the documentary film He Named Me Malala due to the generosity of DonorsChoose.org and the Students Stand with Malala Screening Program. One student, Nicole, wrote a reflection to the film that deserves a wider audience than me. Therefore, what follows is her reflection about the documentary film He Named Me Malala.

He Named Her Malala was an amazing and powerful movie. It was about a girl named Malala who spoke out for women's education in Pakistan as a teenager. When she was 15 she was shot on the left side of her head by the Taliban on the bus to school along with two of her friends. I think she is an amazing role model for everyone around the world, especially girls.

I think most kids in America are very ungrateful, mostly about school. No one ever wants to go to school, including me, and I think that’s terrible. I also think it’s not completely our fault. But if you just listen to Malala, you can tell how much she loves learning and wants to go to school. She even went to school on the day she received the Nobel Peace Prize! I think kids that have the privilege to go to school everyday should be grateful. And not just that, but kids that have the privilege to go to school everyday and not be scared that they are going to be shot or kidnapped or that something terrible will happen to them. After watching that movie, I felt very selfish and ungrateful.

Malala is very inspiring to me. Even before she got shot, she spoke about women's education when she was as young as 13! That must have taken a lot of courage considering that the Taliban had pretty much complete control over her town and they were against women going to school.

It must be hard for her. She lives in the UK now and probably has a great life there. She gets to do so much stuff and speak about women's education, but I bet she misses Pakistan. Even if she had a really hard life there, she still probably misses her friends and everything she knew for 15 years. Also, if I were her, I would be really scared all the time because the Taliban wants her dead. I would be looking over my shoulder every minute of the day waiting for someone to kill me.

Another thing that I thought was really powerful was that she said she was never mad at them for shooting her. Malala said she had never even felt a fragment of anger for them. That’s something that I wouldn’t ever be able to do. She said that it’s because Islam practices forgiveness and everything. I also think that the Taliban gives Islam a bad name. Some people think everyone who practices Islam are like the Taliban, which obviously isn’t true considering Malala is nothing like them.

All in all I think that He Named Me Malala was one of the best movies I have ever seen and I think Malala is one of the most amazing people in the world.