English 118
22nd March, 2018
The weapon of knowledge
Despite being shot in the head by the Taliban for wanting an education, Malala Yousafzai has not only recovered but has become one of the most influential people in today’s day as a human rights activist promoting education for women and children. On July 12th, 2013, she delivered a speech at the United Nations Youth Assembly to call on world leaders to provide free, compulsory education for all children. She was just 16 years old when she gave this speech, nevertheless, it was proficient, very well spoken and the message she sought to send was clear and incredibly moving. The main purpose of it was to make her audience aware of the dire need for all women and children around the world to receive an education by reminding her audience that everyone has the right to education. She uses her passion for learning to inspire hope in her audience by emphasizing the importance of education and recounting distressing personal experiences which have made her stronger, however, she contrasts this by provoking fear in her audience as she discusses the worry of the unknown with extremists in the future if education does not become accessible.
Yousafzai uses ethos to establish her credibility right from the start of her speech as she mentions her clothing (which has significance to this event) and well wishes from people around the world. She states “it is an honor for me that today I am wearing a shawl of the late Benazir Bhutto”. Her purpose of bringing this up was to manifest that Bhutto was a former woman prime minister in Pakistan, where Malala is from, who fought for democracy and education and Bhutto had also spoken at the UN. Malala shows that she envisions the same future as Bhutto had and that Malala spoke at the UN not as a victim of terrorism, but as a survivor of it, just as Bhutto had in her first assassination attempt. The effect of this on the audience is to show that there is still hope for women in Pakistan and for Malala as an educational activist and so they should pay attention to what she has to say. She then goes on to thank everyone who has helped her recover as she says “I have received thousands of good-wish cards and gifts from all over the world”. This is to show that she is not alone as there are thousands of people who stand by her side and believe in her and this indicates unity. It gives her audience hope that if she wanted to achieve a goal, many people would follow, support and help her in making it happen.
Yousafzai uses hope and fear to establish the point of her speech from here by bringing up the main reasons why she is giving this speech and by expressing that she is speaking up for those who are suffering in silence She states “There are hundreds of human rights activists and social workers who are not only speaking for their rights, but who are struggling to achieve their goal of peace, education and equality. Thousands of people have been killed by the terrorists and millions have been injured,” and she says “I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard.” This shows that what she is going to talk about in her speech is an ongoing problem and needs to be fixed immediately, and she starts invoking fear in her audience by mentioning murder, however, she shows that she is the one who will change this and her standing up and giving this speech gives rise to hope in her audience.
She induces fear in her audience throughout her speech by continuously talking about the Taliban, terrorism and other extremists and their actions, however, her main goal is to inspire hope in her audience which she does by using emotional, yet moving, anecdotes, and she contrasts these two consistently. She appeals to pathos by narrating a story about her and her friends being shot by the Taliban and she goes on to say “They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices.” This maintains the hope in Yousafzai’s audience as it shows that more and more people are standing up for themselves and are standing up against this wrongdoing as they are not afraid anymore. She then says “The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.” She encourages hope by fearlessly stating just how powerless the Taliban’s attempt to silence her has made them and how much “strength, power and courage” she gained from it which encourages her audience to believe that if they don’t fear the Taliban, then the extremists cannot harm them, and so by using herself as an example and by being there itself, she proves her point. On the other hand, she repeatedly mentions the “Taliban” and their dreadful actions in order to emphasize how dangerous and unjust they really are and can be. This allows that fear already created in her audience to continue as they now know that these extremists are the actual problem. It also gives her audience a visual representation for them to imagine and to channel their fear into as its specific to who they should fear.
Yousafzai then stimulates both hope and fear in her audience by explaining that extremists aren’t unstoppable and by giving the reasons why that is, conversely, she brings up disturbing recent events that were caused by these extremists. She says “The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.” This is empowering to all the women who are listening to her as it encourages them to have faith in themselves and be able to stand up independently against these extremists through their intelligence. Yousafzai then carries on to say “This is why they killed 14 innocent students in the recent attack in Quetta. And that is why they kill female teachers. That is why they are blasting schools every day”. She uses logos to startle her audience so they are aware of the urgency of the situation as she implies that terrorism is an ongoing event that won’t stop unless action is taken otherwise more innocent people will continue to die. Later in her speech, she mentions “In India, innocent and poor children are victims of child labor. Many schools have been destroyed in Nigeria. People in Afghanistan have been affected by extremism” to cause panic in her audience as it indicates that extremism isn’t only happening in Pakistan, but all around the world, and therefore can suddenly occur at any time, in any place, to anyone – including those in the audience – and so it stresses the urgency of this situation.
She retains this hope and fear in her audience by recounting one of her personal experiences. She says “And I remember that there was a boy in our school who was asked by a journalist: “Why are the Taliban against education?” He answered very simply by pointing to his book, he said: “A Talib doesn’t know what is written inside this book.” Fear comes into play here as these few sentences imply that the people who make up the Taliban don’t have an education, and so children who also don’t have an education will likely end up joining the Taliban as they can be easily brainwashed since they won’t know any better. The large context of this is that the Taliban will grow in population and therefore be able to gain more power and become more dangerous. This does, however, tie back to her main argument of education being the solution to all problems as with education, these children won’t be able to be brainwashed as they would then already know about the real world. This gives hope to the audience as they are provided with a solution that is logical, realistic and very possible. She concludes her speech with the statement ” One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first” This is a very powe
rful and hopeful s
tatement that repeats her purpose of this speech and instills this hopeful idea of education being a weapon in the minds of her audience.
This speech was very effective as it was very simple and it delivered a powerful message with a solution that was very reasonable and realistic, especially for a 16-year-old girl. It does, however, appeal more to children and young adults who would easily be inspired by her words and actions, rather than a more mature audience with their own strong beliefs. This speech would have also worked well people of the same viewpoints and ideas as hers. It would have encouraged and motivated a younger generation to take education seriously and want to change things in the future as they are the future.