‘He Named Me Malala’ celebrates the girl behind the iconic name

In 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head while riding on a bus home from school in her native Pakistan. Her story is doorway into life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, and while this is touched upon, the full scope of the oppressive dangers faced by Afghani citizens are left unsaid.

Yousafzai, whose father is featured prominently in the film, received a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism about female educational rights.

And yet, in spite of the fact the above criticisms suggest an overall disappointment with the film’s execution, it still should be show to every school-age child as a source of education and inspiration.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman), the documentary He Named Me Malala profiles the life and work of the teenage Pakistani activist who is internationally known as the youngest ever victor of the Nobel Peace Prize. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund. “He didn’t make me Malala”, she quietly declares. She stands steadfast that her decision to speak out was hers alone. “She goes on the internet and looks at [famous] people”.

Malala Yousafzai at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

Malala refuses to admit that her father, himself an outspoken educator, pushed her into her cause.

So much official veneration had stuck to Anne Frank over the years that it was startling to hear her lively, witty, soulful voice come springing off the page.

He Named Me Malala does what few films have been able to accomplish, putting a spotlight on the lives of the true victims in the fight against Islamic terrorist groups- the people of the Middle East. One standout attribute of the film that grounds the struggle Pakistanis face is the use of animation. Her father explains the origin of her name.

“The theme of the movie is how an ordinary person can find their voice and how powerful you can be if you express that”, Guggenheim told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Due to her activism in women’s education, we thought this movie was a flawless choice for an event to raise awareness for domestic abuse in the Jewish community”. She’d been militating against their occupation and their fundamentalist conviction that young girls should not be educated.

“I couldn’t imagine that anyone would attack Malala as a child”.

Malala and her family now live in England.

Yes, her father named her Malala.

Her birthdays since her attack, said Guggenheim, have acquired a special meaning to her and her family. The cartoons, matching photos from the family album, also evoke the childhood of Malala’s mother, Toor Pekai Yousafzai, who recalled her own brief education Friday at London’s Women in the World summit.

Activism was practically Malala’s birthright, her name inspired by Afghan folk hero Malalai of Maiwand, who rallied Afghan fighters against British troops in the 19th century.

“SuperSoul Sunday” is the two-time Emmy award-winning series that delivers timely, thought-provoking, eye-opening and inspiring programming created to help viewers awaken to their best selves and discover a deeper connection to the world around them”. Why this kind of manhood – that I believe in controlling my wife and my sisters and my daughters? It doesn’t neglect Khushal and Atal – the most adorable brothers in the world – and good times around their kitchen table in Birmingham.