Malala Yousafzai told Emma Watson she decided to call herself a feminist after hearing her now famous speech at the UN, to launch the “He for She” campaign, which aims to encourage men to fight for women’s rights. “It has been a tricky word. When I heard it the first time I heard some negative responses and some positive ones. I hesitated in saying am I feminist or not?” she told Watson during an interview at a screening of the He Named Me Malala documentary at the Into Film Festival. “Then after hearing your speech I decided there’s no way and there’s nothing wrong by calling yourself a feminist. So I’m a feminist and we all should be a feminist because feminism is another word for equality.”
Malala also said that her father, Ziauddin, was an “example to all men” and called himself a feminist. Emma Watson said she had planned to ask the 18-year old Nobel Peace Prize winner whether she identified as a feminist, but decided not to when she saw that she had never used the word describe herself. But, to Watson’s “utter shock,” Malala decided to address the question anyway. Watson posted a video of the interview to her own Facebook page, saying she found Malala’s statement very moving. “Let’s not make it scary to say you’re a feminist,” Watson wrote. “I want to make it a welcoming and inclusive movement. Let’s join our hands and move together so we can make real change. Malala and I are pretty serious about it but we need you.”
Watch the video here or read the full story at The Guardian.
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