To raise awareness and suggest solutions around the key crises our world faces today, the United Nations has enlisted celebrities and influential personalities such as Malala, Beyonce, and more for a film based on actions that can tackle contemporary issues, ranging from Covid-19 to poverty and inequality.
Malala enlisted by UN: What the film entails
Malala Yousafzai is one of the activists who has been selected for such an initiative, given her role as a leading girls education activist, Nobel laureate and UN messenger of peace. Others include Goodwill ambassadors Don Cheadle and Michelle Yeoh.
“The film will take audiences on a dynamic exploration of the times we live in, the multiple tipping points our planet faces, and the interventions that could transform our world over the next 10 years,” the UN claimed on its website.
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed will also appear in the film. The website further added that Oscar-winning actor Julia Roberts will also host a radio broadcast and podcast version of the film.
Malala’s role as a global activist and role model
Malala, a recent graduate from Oxford University, is a Pakistani Pashtun activist for female education. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. Malala propagates the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She emerged a powerful advocate of female education when the local Taliban had banned girls from attending school in her home town.
Her unbridled support for the cause made her an international figure. According to former Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she is “the most prominent citizen” of the country.
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Taliban gunman shot Malala Yousafzai and two girls on 9 October 2012. The incident happened when girls were way to home on a bus after a school exam. The terrorists targetted her for her activism. The gunman fled the scene. A bullet hit Yousafzai in the head. She remained unconscious and in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology.
But her condition later improved enough to transfer her to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. Hence, the attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support for Yousafzai. Deutsche Welle reported in January 2013 that Yousafzai may have become “the most famous teenager in the world”.
The world recognized Malala
Based in Birmingham, she co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization. In 2013 co-authored I Am Malala, an international bestseller. In 2012, she was the recipient of Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize and the 2013 Sakharov Prize. Also, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi of India. Also, she is the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate at the age of 17.