Malala Yousafzai

What did you love about studying philosophy?

For me, I think I am more attracted towards like virtue ethics, and I think it's important to be virtuous. And sometimes virtues like kindness, generosity are taken for granted. And small deeds, though they are they're small, they look small, you know, just be kind, just smiling at someone, they can have a real impact and they can actually bring joy and happiness to your life and to the lives of others. So I am sort of more on that side. You know, it tells you how to be than focusing more on how to act.

Do you need to have a certain amount of separation between the public perception of you and who you are at home?

There is that other sort of malala that is in the house and I am quite bossy in a way, in a positive way, in a very positive way. I lecture my brothers all the time, do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that. They probably need it. Boys need a lot of lectures, so which is good, you know. It's gonna help them in future.

How do you feel about the misinformation and disinformation out there about you?

Initially, when this started, and it started back in 2012 when the incident happened, within I think a month or so, people started spreading this misinformation that this attack was all planned or that blaming my father for it, or then soon this narrative started that this incident had never even happened and it's all sort of a fake thing. And it's so hard to process that because you are like, you know, what do I say? … And it also would look silly if you say, okay, shall I show you the scars on my body? Or shall I show you the medical documents from the hospital? But we have reached a point where people would not even believe that. In my real life, I have not met anyone who has been disrespectful to me or who has called me fake or anything. So that is something that gives me hope. And I do hope that when they meet you in person, their views will change. But maybe I'm just a bit too optimistic in that.