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‘HENAMEDMEMALALA’
Davis Guggenheim’s stirring documentary on Nobel Prize winner
Malala Yousafzai debuts in Washington.
B Y J A N E T D O N O VA N
W
e got involved with Malala through
Malala herself,” Ambassador of the
United Arab Emirates Yousef Al
Otaiba told us at the Washington premiere of
“He Named Me Malala,” hosted by National
Geographic Channel, Fox Searchlight Pictures,
Participant Media, Image Nation Abu Dhabi
and The Malala Fund.
Malala Yousafzai is the young girl — 14 years
old at the time — who was shot in the head
for speaking out against the Taliban’s repression
of women and school girls in Pakistan, blowing
up more than 500 schools to demonstrate its
opposition to non-religious curriculums and girls
studying anything but the Koran. In October
2014, she received the Nobel Peace Prize at age
17, the youngest person ever to do so.
“Every now and then you come upon a
story that can actually go out and do some
good in the world,” said producer Walter
Parkes. “It’s compelling, emotional and urgent.”
Parkes and his partner Laurie MacDonald
acquired the rights to Malala’s story and her
book “I Am Malala” but after meeting her in
person, they decided no one else could play
the title role, which is why her story had to be
a documentary.
“This is really a father-daughter story that
speaks to everyone,” said the film’s Oscar-winning
director Davis Guggenheim.
The timeline goes like this: Malala Yousafzai
was born in Mingora, in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
Named after a folk heroine, her father listed her
on the family register, a virtual first in a male
dominated society. When the Taliban took over
the Swat Valley and destroyed the girls’ schools,
Malala stood up for her rights. “All I want is an
education and I am afraid of no one” became her
motto. After she started blogging for the BBC
she was targeted by the Taliban. Her nearly fatal
attack brought world-wide attention. How the
father and daughter interacted throughout this
timeline is revealed in the film.
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Fox Searchlight’s Tony Stafford, Malala Fund’s Meighan Stone, director Davis Guggenheim, director Walter Parkes,
National Geographic Channel’s CEO Courteney Monroe, Abeer Al Otaiba, and Amb. Yousef Al Otaiba at the screening
of “He Named Me Malala” at National Geopgraphic headquarters. (Photo: National Geographic Channels/Dana Rene)
“The incident occurred
in Afghanistan two and a half
years ago,” Al-Otaiba recalled.
“We sent an aircraft to get her
out of there. The original plan
was to get her to the U.A.E.,
but we ended up sending her
to the U.K. instead. We built a
connection with Malala herself and through
that we then became involved in her fund
and promoting what [she] stands for ... The
values she is promoting are exactly the values
of the U.A.E., so it was a natural fit for us to
promote things like women’s education and
the role of young women through Malala
herself.”
The Ambassaador pointed to what is
happening in his country with regard to women’s
rights. “We have four ministers in our federal
cabinet who are women. Approximately 80
percent of our college student population are
women, almost 20 percent of our parliament
federal national council are women,” Otaiba
noted. “So again, the reason Malala’s issues and
values are important to us is because it tracks with
where the U.A.E. sees and treats women’s issues.
We take a very pro-active way of promoting
our women, whether it’s through education,
employment, we ... do it across the board.”
“Malala started speaking out when she was
only 11 and that was the start of her journey as an
activist. So, her voice is something she has been
using powerfully since she was really young,” said
Meighan Stone, president of The Malala Fund.
“She says herself that she had two choices when
the Taliban came into her community. The first
was to not speak up, stay quiet and be killed; the
second choice was to speak up and then be killed
and she made the second choice. She and her
father both recognized as activists and advocates
that it was the time for them to make their voices
heard.”
The film debuts in select theaters on
Friday, Oct. 2.
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
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