This is appointment viewing.
He’s talked to former US president Barack Obama, actor and philanthropist George Clooney, and now, David Letterman has hosted Malala Yousafzai.
The Nobel Laureate sat down with the American television host for the latest episode of his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
We’d say Yousafzai fits that bill.
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As you’d expect from someone as inspiring and dedicated as the 20-year-old activist, the interview is extremely compelling.
Yousafzai rose to international prominence in 2012 when she survived an assassination attempt by a Taliban gunman. Then just 15, the young Pakistani woman was targeted for her advocacy on the importance of education for women and girls.
When Letterman asks who would have continued her work had she not survived, Yousafzai says she hopes many people would have stepped up.
It’s not just about extremists, she says.
“That’s what we have to fight against, the ideology… that does not accept women as equal to men, that does not accept women to have the right to education, that does not accept women to have the right to do a job, to decide her own future,” Yousafzai tells Letterman.
“Whether it exists in the mountains of Pakistan, whether it exists in the big cities, in New York or in Washington or anywhere, we have to challenge [it].”
And in terms of what we should do about this ideology that holds women back, Yousafzai is clear-eyed.
Governments, businesses and society as a whole needs to invest in girls and their education, she says.
“We just need an ambition and an intention. What to do is then easy.”
Well, we know what we’re watching this evening.
You can catch Yousafzai’s episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix now.
Images: Netflix
