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Posts Tagged ‘Malala Yousafzai’

  1. Malala Yousafzai

    September 6, 2013 by Melissa Shallcross

    On September 3, 2013, Malala Yousafzai returned to the microphone again to open the new Library of Birmingham in England, the largest library in Europe. Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager, was speaking out for women’s education in Pakistan in October 2012 when her courage and civic engagement put her in danger of the Taliban, who shot at her and her friends.

    Davies, Caroline. Malala Yousafzai Opens New Birmingham Library. The Guardian. 2013. Web. 5 Sep. 2013.

    Davies, Caroline. Malala Yousafzai Opens New Birmingham Library. The Guardian. 2013. Web. 5 Sep. 2013.

    Yousafzai had a bullet graze her brain. She was airlifted to Birmingham for treatment, where she has since recovered and made the city her second home. Despite her brush with death, she continues to speak out not only for women’s rights, but for the rights of all children and women around the world. On her 16th birthday, she continued to contribute as a citizen of her Pakistani and youth community by speaking to a large group of student delegates at the United Nations.

    This week, she had the honor of opening the largest library in Europe. In her speech, she resonates with civic engagement as she takes lead and points out to everybody that knowledge is power. She is actively informed about the problems of education in the world, and she takes action through speeches such as these. She tries to persuade and encourage others to help her in her fight for education.

    It is apparent that she puts others ahead of herself. Even though she now has a home in Birmingham where she is freely being educated, she still stands up for her community in Pakistan and other countries where children and women are still suffering through speeches like the one she did on Tuesday.

    Yousafzai’s use of rhetoric in her speech is amazing for her age, as she always stays composed and speaks clearly and forcefully. She is able to get people to pay attention to her from the beginning. First, she connects herself with the people of Birmingham with an appeal of ethos, labeling herself and her audience with the humorous local city nickname of “Brummies.” Then, continually addressing her audience as “brothers and sisters” and having their greater attention, she introduces the topic of her discussion. She declares that knowledge can defeat terrorism and implores us not to forget that “only one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” She also uses the statistic that 57 million children are not getting education. This uses the appeal of logos, getting her audience to think about what she just proposed. How can just one book, pen, child, and teacher change the world exactly, and how is it that that many children are not getting educated?

    Throughout her speech, she is very persuasive about the idea that knowledge is power. She speaks with great confidence on the subject, and her near death experience speaks loud to the audience about just how true the threat of terrorism is in the Middle Eastern countries. The idea that the Taliban would try to silence children for being activists for their own education helps Yousafzai gain sympathy for those children and women around the world who still are not being educated, an example of an appeal of pathos.

    Opening the largest library in Europe emphasizes her goal of education for the world, as libraries are symbols of knowledge. As she continues to be one of the youngest activists for childhood education, she will continue to gain support for her cause because of her poise and great passion for the effort. If you have not already seen Yousafzai’s speeches, I strongly recommend that you watch them. Her passion and confidence can easily capture people’s attention and will continue to gain support for her cause until it is truly fixed.

    Links:

    Library of Birmingham Speech – http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/malala-yousafzai-opens-birmingham-library

    Davies, Caroline. Malala Yousafzai Opens New Birmingham Library. The Guardian. 2013. Web. 5 Sep. 2013.

    United Nations Speech – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRh_30C8l6Y

    ABC News. “Girl Shot in Head by Taliban, Speaks at UN: Malala Yousafzai United Nations Speech 2012.” YouTube. Web. 5 Sep. 2013.

     

     


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