Super Soul Special: Malala Yousafzai: What is Your Defining Moment?

Summary

Super Soul Special: Malala Yousafzai—What is Your Defining Moment?

Podcast: Oprah’s Super Soul
Host: Oprah Winfrey
Guest: Malala Yousafzai (with Ziauddin Yousafzai, her father)
Date: January 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the resilience, courage, and unwavering commitment of Malala Yousafzai to girls’ education and equality. Oprah interviews Malala and her father, Ziauddin, exploring Malala’s defining moments—from her childhood in Pakistan under Taliban rule, her activism for girls’ education, surviving an assassination attempt, and her life’s greater purpose. The conversation delves into themes of bravery, forgiveness, faith, family influence, and how personal adversity can bloom into global change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Malala's Connection to Humanity and Her Purpose

• Oprah asks how Malala’s experience connects her to humanity:
  • Malala shares that witnessing and experiencing deprivation deepened her empathy for others facing similar situations.
    • "When you see that situation, it helps you to know about other people and how other people feel when they go through the same circumstances in their life." (02:40)
  • She emphasizes her desire to help others avoid the same adversities she endured.

The Nobel Peace Prize—Speaking For All Girls

• Malala recalls preparing her Nobel speech while taking her high school exams.
  • "I really wanted this speech to be the voice of girls, to be the voice of children." (04:06)
  • She invited girls from Nigeria, Syria, and Pakistan to represent those deprived of education, which made the award feel collective, not just individual.

Life Under Taliban Rule and Choosing Courage over Fear

• Malala describes life when the Taliban banned girls’ education:
  • Fear was less about speaking out and more about a lifetime of lost freedom and selfhood (05:28).
    • “I was not really afraid of speaking out, but I was afraid to live in that situation.” (05:28)
  • The possibility of becoming “just like the other women in my community...getting married at a very early age...” was her greatest fear (05:41).
• Discussion on threat and family protection strategies, including how Malala and her family coped with danger.

The Assassination Attempt and Recovery

• Malala does not remember the attack itself; she recalls her last happy moment before waking up in a Birmingham hospital (07:53, 08:15).
• Upon waking from her coma, her first concern was her father's safety (09:08).
  • "I first thanked God that I was alive...Then I asked, where's my father?" (09:08)
• Outpouring of global love and prayers deeply moved Malala, strengthening her faith in the power of collective goodwill (10:13).

Redefining Bravery and Responsibility

• On being called "the bravest girl in the world," Malala reframes bravery:
  • “Bravery is when you speak up and speak out for what is right. And it’s our responsibility.” (12:56)
  • She advocates for social engagement as a duty, not an exceptional act.

Influence of Family & The Power of Nurture

• Malala credits her father and mother with inspiring her activism (14:06).
  • On heroes: “Sometimes we just think that the person who would bring the change would be very special...we don’t realize that they are just normal people, people like us.”(14:25)
  • Change starts with small steps and strong commitment.

A Life “Spared for a Reason”—Purpose & Legacy

• Malala believes her survival has a higher purpose:
  • "This life is purely for a purpose...helping people for the betterment of society and for girls." (15:41)
• She feels her story is bigger than her personal narrative; it’s representative of many girls’ experiences (16:13).

Forgiveness and Moving Forward

• Malala has never harbored anger toward her attackers:
  • “In order to go forward, it’s important that you have love in your heart.” (16:56)
• She stresses focusing on the future and channeling adversity into purposeful action rather than resentment (17:18).
• She describes advocacy as “the best revenge” against extremism—education and empowerment (18:00).

Celebrating Her 18th Birthday—Building Schools

• Rather than personal celebration, Malala opened a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon.
  • “That was the most precious gift I’ve ever received. That was the love of those children.” (18:36)

Life Balance—Being a Normal Teen

• Despite her activism, Malala enjoys typical teenage activities: shopping, restaurants, playing sports, and “fighting with brothers” (19:14).

Courage Vs. Fear

• Malala discusses the internal struggle between courage and fear, emphasizing that courage must win to create societal change (20:00).
  • “Our courage was stronger than our fear...That was the fear—to live in that situation—that really motivated me to have the courage to speak out.” (20:00)

On Islam, Peace, and Reclaiming Faith

• Malala describes Islam as peace, humanity, and kindness, differentiating it from extremists’ claims (21:48).
• Her mother’s empathy extended even to the family of her attacker (22:21).

Fearlessness After the Attack

• Malala states she no longer fears the Taliban:
  • “They can only kill me and it didn’t work, so it means nothing else can work.” (24:09)
• The movement is immortal, “not me, but the moment.” (24:39)
• She feels death holds less fear, and the attack destroyed her “weakness, fear and hopelessness” (24:50).

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The Influence of Malala's Father—Ziauddin Yousafzai

Raising a Daughter Differently

• Ziauddin describes challenging patriarchal norms, insisting Malala have her name recorded in the family tree where only men’s names appeared (27:42).
  • “Love means freedom, love means respect, love means independence.” (28:15)
• He defied cultural expectations to raise his daughter as an independent thinker.

Understanding the Attack as Ideological

• Ziauddin explains the attack on Malala was ideological, not personal—rooted in misconceptions and brainwashing, rather than true Islamic principles (29:02, 29:15).

Processing Guilt and Faith

• Ziauddin initially felt blame as a father, but his wife’s reassurance and Malala’s lack of resentment helped him (30:33).
• On faith: sees God beside him during moments of despair, such as Malala’s attack (32:45).

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Defining God & The Power of Love

Malala’s View of God

• Profound, inclusive definition:
  • “God is another name for love, kindness, mercy, heart—all these feelings.” (31:45)
  • She rejects punitive, judgmental religious interpretations.

Ziauddin’s Faith

• Finds God in utter despair and moments of helplessness (32:45).

Malala on Belief, Commitment, and Support

• “If you have strong commitment within your heart, if you have love in your heart that you want to do something better, the whole world and the whole universe supports you in your cause.” (33:22)
• Her simple dream: that every child goes to school—what began in a small valley became a global movement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bravery:
  • Malala: “Bravery is when you speak up and speak out for what is right...It’s our duty to speak out for what is right.” (12:56)
• On Survival and Purpose:
  • Malala: “I believe that this life is...for helping people...This is a second life. This is a new life.” (15:41)
• On Fear and Activism:
  • Malala: “They can only kill me and it didn’t work, so it means nothing else can work.” (24:09)
• On Forgiveness:
  • Malala: “I want to have love in my heart. I don’t want to have any hate, any bad feelings in my heart.” (16:56)
• On The Role of Her Father:
  • Ziauddin: “Love means freedom, love means respect, love means independence.” (28:15)
• On Faith:
  • Malala: “God is another name for love, for kindness, mercy, heart, all these feelings.” (31:45)
• On Commitment and Changing the World:
  • Malala: “If you have strong commitment within your heart...the whole world and the whole universe supports you in your cause.” (33:22)

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Key Timestamps

• Malala on Empathy and Purpose: 02:40
• Writing Nobel Speech: 03:44
• Life under the Taliban: 05:28
• The shooting & aftermath: 07:53–09:56
• Bravery defined: 12:56
• Influence of her father: 14:06
• Purpose and survival: 15:41
• Forgiveness and moving forward: 16:42–18:00
• Opening a school for her 18th birthday: 18:15
• On Islam and peace: 21:48
• No fear of Taliban, focus on the movement: 24:07–24:39
• The role of her father & family: 26:16–28:15
• Faith, God, and the meaning of life: 31:45–33:22

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Tone and Language

• The episode maintains an intimate, heartfelt, and respectful tone. Oprah’s empathetic questioning invites Malala’s wisdom, honesty, and humility. Malala’s responses are reflective, sincere, and quietly powerful. The conversation is deeply inspiring, with a gentle yet courageous spirit, celebrating compassion, resilience, and the power of education to change the world.

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For Further Exploration

• He Named Me Malala (Documentary)
• I Am Malala (Memoir)
• The Malala Fund: Supporting girls’ education globally

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Transcript

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[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Valuable gifts you can give yourself is.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Is time, taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. Malala Yousafzai was a young Pakistani girl not afraid to speak her truth. She was a straight A student growing up in her beloved Swat Valley of Pakistan. Her father, Zia Yuddin, ran a school. Her mother, Torpakay, looked after Malala and her two younger brothers. Malala describes her childhood as peaceful and happy until the Taliban came when she was 11 years old. Within two years, people were beaten and murdered in the public squares. Televisions were set on fire and schools were destroyed. When the Taliban banned girls from getting an education, Malala bravely spoke out. Then, on the afternoon of October 9, 2012, two masked gunmen stopped Malala's school bus and shot her point blank in the head. Two of her friends were also shot in that attack. Both of them also survived. Malala, just 15 years old, was rushed to the hospital and then flown to Birmingham, England for further treatment. In what doctors called a miracle, Malala not only survived, but suffered very little permanent damage. Malala embodies the strength, the power and courage of the human spirit.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Is there a part of you now that believes that you are, first of all, more connected to humanity in a way that you weren't before the attack, but that so much of your life belongs to the world?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Do you feel that what's, I think, unfortunate or fortunate? I don't know how to explain it, but I have gone through these experiences of being deprived of education and seeing terrorism, seeing schools being blown up. So when you see that situation, it helps you to know about other people and how other people feel when they go through the same circumstances in their life, when they suffer through the same difficulties in their life. So now Seeing around the world that children cannot get education and girls are facing so many difficulties in their life and they're deprived of independence and being themselves. It just reminds me of my past. And then I think that what I have went through in my past, I should help people not to go through the same situation of terrorism.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So when you were giving your Nobel Peace prize speech at 17, first of all, how do you even begin to write a Nobel Peace Prize speech? How did you begin to frame that, what you wanted to say to the world?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Well, just like a week or two before the speech, I had my exams. So I was totally focused on exams. I couldn't give five minutes to the speech, and I said I need to do well in my exams. I was just totally focused on for high school. Yes, still not done well, but you're.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

In high school and you're talking about your exams. You're the only Nobel Peace Prize winner who had to also focus on their exams.

[Malala Yousafzai]

But then. So I really wanted this speech to be the voice of girls, to be the voice of children. And it was wonderful because we invited five girls from Nigeria, Syria, and three girls from Pakistan, including the two girls who were attacked. And all these girls, yes, they had a story and representing girls within Nigeria who are abducted by Boko Haram, or girls in Pakistan who suffer from sexual violence, or Syrian girls who are now refugees. So they had a story. And that made my day very special to feel that I was not just one girl, but I was many. I was speaking on behalf of those millions of girls who are deprived of education. And that really made the award more precious to me. And it felt like it was. I was receiving it for the children.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

It's so interesting. When extraordinary things happen in our lives, they often begin with ordinary days. You know, was the state of Swat in such a way that you feared going out? Because there had already been all of these announcements by the Taliban that that girls were not supposed to go to school and girls were not supposed to go to the marketplace. But yet you were still doing it. Were you afraid in doing it?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Well, that was a very difficult time. More than 400 schools were destroyed and women were not allowed to go to markets and girls education was banned completely. And in that situation, for me, I was not really afraid of speaking out, but I was afraid to live in that situation. And I did not want to live in a situation where I had no freedom or where I did not have the right to be who I wanted. And like thinking that I'm stopped from going to school and the Next thought that would come to my mind was, am I going to be just like the other women in my community? Getting married at a very early age, 13, 14, and then having children and then grandchildren and that's it. That would be my life. I wouldn't be myself.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You thought, if I don't get an education, I'm going to end up like all these other women.

[Malala Yousafzai]

And this was what I feared the most. Rather than fearing that if I speak out, I would be targeted.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Right, so you were willing to be targeted, even knowing that speaking out, you could lose your life, but you didn't think it was possible because at that point, the Taliban had never harmed children. Right?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes, you're right. And they like people calling the most brutal people terrorists. And they have done things which shock people. But then no one could imagine targeting children. They have destroyed school, but they never killed a child, Targeted a child who spoke out. So it was very unusual, very unusual. And I always used to think about my father because we both used to speak together about this campaign of education and I would speak on behalf of girls and he would speak for schools, for women's rights, for peace and for girls rights. So I was really worried about my father, that he might be targeted, and used to think, what should I do if someone comes to our house? And my mother had put a ladder at the back of the house, so if someone comes, we tell her father just to go away quickly at the back. And my mother even decided to put a knife under her pillow, but then she said, it's too violent, she wouldn't do that. And I always used to think that, how can I protect my father?

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Yeah, I thought it was interesting how you're describing. You're on the bus and you. You're sitting there with your friends. Someone stops the bus, they come onto the bus. You don't immediately think that they're there for you. Do you remember the feeling of being shot?

[Malala Yousafzai]

I don't remember that incident.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You don't remember it?

[Malala Yousafzai]

I remember just that last moment when I was talking to my friend and thinking about the next day. We had exams at that time and my exam went very well on that day and I was thinking of the next day exam. So I was quite happy that moment. And then suddenly waking up in Birmingham in a hospital, seeing doctors and nurses, and had no idea what had happened in between.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So when the terrorist enters the bus and says, who is Malala or where is Malala? Did you think what?

[Malala Yousafzai]

I do not remember, but my friend says, my best friend, Muneeba, she Says that when the person came and he said, who is Malala? Some of the girls looked at you because they had no idea what was going to happen next. And. And I asked her, like, what did I do? How did I react? Was I scared? And she said, you said nothing, but you were holding my hand so tightly that I could feel pain on my hand. And then she said, as he fired bullets, you fell down into my lap and you started bleeding. And then they fired two, three more bullets. And then my other two friends were hit as well.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And when you awakened from the coma, I heard that the first thing that you asked was, where's your father?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes, because I thought he got attacked and I was very worried about him. And I first thanked God that I was alive and I was surviving. It's a very difficult moment when you want to wake up and when you want to prove that you are surviving, you are not dead. And once I woke up, I said, yes, I am alive and I'm existing and I haven't gone from this world yet. And then I asked, where's my father? And it was a very difficult time because I could not speak because there was tube in my neck. And I really wanted to ask many, many questions. And I would try to write them, to ask the doctors. But then 10 days later, when I saw my family, that was the first time that I cried. It was a very emotional moment to see my family again.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

In what way did your near death and the world's outcry, prayers, candles lit around the world, in what way did that experience deepen the meaning of your life?

[Malala Yousafzai]

So when I was in the hospital, I had no idea that people outside had so much support for me and they were praying for me. And the cards and the letters that I had received, I had no idea. But as the doctors and the hospital staff, they would bring cards to the hospital, to my room, every day. It just totally surprised me. Before, I believed in prayers, but then it strengthened my belief in prayers that the prayers of people are so powerful that it can give you life and that God listens to them and he just listens to their voices.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

I know you believe there are two reasons your story is you need prayer and love. Did you feel that you could feel the love and outpouring from people? Could you not?

[Malala Yousafzai]

I think there was nothing greater than the love and the prayer of people. And it's so special that you can't buy it. You can't buy it. No, it's a gift. It's a gift of God.

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[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You have been called now wherever you go, people say, and even as we introduce you here, we'll say she is the bravest girl in the world. Now meet the bravest girl in the world. What does your heart say when you hear those words?

[Malala Yousafzai]

People think I did a brave thing, that I spoke out for education and then even after I was attacked, I spoke out again. So it's defined as bravery. For me, bravery is when you speak up and speak out for what is right. And it's our responsibility. It's not that we do something, give something extra, and do a favor to our community. I think it's our duty and we should do it and we must do it. And however you define it, it's our duty to speak out for what is right.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Where do you think you started to embody that? I mean, obviously we see in the wonderful film He Named Me Malala that from a little toddler, you're crawling around in the classrooms and you're listening to your father teach. So obviously the way you were raised had a lot to do with how you felt about yourself and the strength that you hold for yourself as a young girl and a growing woman. But where does that come from? Because the thing that you say at the name end of the movie is so powerful. I'm not Gonna give that away. But when you say you worked to become this girl.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes. But who really inspired me was my father and my mother, of course. And when I would listen to my father speaking out for education and speaking out for women's rights, it just really inspired me. But then sometimes we just think that the person who would bring the change would be very special and he would be like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. And they are very special people. They can't be among us and we don't realize that they are just normal people, people like us, like Malala. Well, I haven't done that much yet. And it's my dream to be like them. And the change they have brought in society, that I can do the same. And it's like the beginning of the journey, but it's really to believe that, that they are just like you. And it begins from a small step. And when you it's helping the community. If you have truly that ambition once you started, then if you have strong commitment, then you can do it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Malala's journey is featured in a documentary by Oscar winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim called He Named Me Malala. She's also written a best selling memoir called I Am Malala.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

I love where you say, I know God stopped me from going to the grave. It feels like this life is a second life. People prayed to God to spare me and I was spared for a reason. To use my life for helping people. Do you believe that?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes, I strongly believe that. I believe that this life is pure, purely for a purpose and that is helping people. That is doing something for the world and doing something for the betterment of the society and for girls. And this is a second life. This is a new life.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You say when people talk about the way I was shot and what happened, I think it's the story of Malala, a girl shot by the Taliban. I don't feel is a story about me at all. Does it really feel kind of separate from you? Sometimes?

[Malala Yousafzai]

I think one reason for this is that I don't remember the incident. So it does not make me feel like I was the girl who was shot. She was just Malala, the girl who was shot by the Taliban, she has got this definition. She's now someone else for me. For me, I am this person with a heart which strongly believes that doing something for your people is important and you should do as much as you can.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You say that you've never been angry at the men who shot you? Never. Not a moment, not an atom.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Well, I think that in order to go Forward. It's important that you have love in your heart. And I want to have love in my heart. I don't want to have any hate, any bad feelings in my, my heart. And that, that's what makes me more happy if I have.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So you never had a why me? Moment?

[Malala Yousafzai]

No.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You never had a why did this have to happen to me?

[Malala Yousafzai]

No. Because I believe that whatever happened, bad or good, it's really important to focus on future and learn from your past. But in order to go forward, you have to focus on your future. And if every day for the last three years, if I would have cried, that why it was me, why it was me, nothing would have been done. But instead of saying that, I said okay, even though I was shot. But I'm not just the only girl who becomes victim of discrimination in society or being attacked in terrorism, or getting deprived of education. There are millions of girls. And the best way to fight against terrorism is to educate girls, is to empower their mysteries, their voices. And in those last three years I made trip to Jordan to speak out for Syrian refugees and to go to Lebanon and Nigeria. And this is like the best revenge you can ever take.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Tell me how you celebrated your 18th birthday.

[Malala Yousafzai]

So I went to Lebanon, in Jordan, and we opened a school. And that was like the wonderful and the great thing you can ever do. And you see girls in their school uniforms sitting there with books sitting in the classrooms. And you can see that. What else can you do better than this? You change the girl's life from a school you built.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Yes.

[Malala Yousafzai]

So that was like the most precious gift I've ever received. That was the love of those children.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

For an 18th birthday.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Pretty cool. I think it's wonderful. I was, what, I don't know, I was 50 when I built a school. Not 18, but when you have, you have won the Nobel Peace Prize at 17 and you're building schools around the world and there's the Malala Fund for which anybody can donate. And that's what you want to do, is want to create educational opportunities for 66 million girls who don't have it throughout the world. Do you do normal 18 year old stuff?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Well, I do have lots of friends now and we go for shopping and go to restaurants, enjoy time. And I also like playing cricket in badminton, also fighting with brothers.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Fighting with brothers.

[Malala Yousafzai]

I really enjoy it.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So this is what's interesting, that living your truth nearly cost you your life. You've said if you're afraid, you can't move forward. And so is courage something that you Think other people can develop or give to themselves this belief system that allowed you to stand up for what you believe was the right thing for girls to be able to go to school. Are other people able to have that?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Well, so there's like this fight between courage and fear. And sometimes we choose fear because we want to protect ourselves. But we don't realize that by choosing fear, we put ourselves in a situation that has really bad impact on us. So if I would have kept silent in Swarth Valley, and my father would have kept silent and all of us would have kept silent, then there would not have been that moment when change would have come in our valley. So it's better to speak out, to have that moment when you say, I'm going to do something from my side. And that needs a bit of courage. So our courage was stronger than our fear. And that what really changed our lives there was fear. It wasn't that we just totally were fine with what was going on in our society. We were afraid. And that was the fear that to live in that situation, the fear that I would be away from school, that really motivated me to have the courage to speak out.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

To speak out. What does it mean to you to be a Muslim woman?

[Malala Yousafzai]

For me, being Muslim means to be peaceful, to be kind, to always think about others, and to always think that how the one action you take can affect other people's lives.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You feel a responsibility to embody what you believe to be the characteristics of Islam.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And that is peace and love. Yeah. You've said that the people who did this to you were not about faith, but they were about power. And I think that for so many people in the world, that power and that terrorism and that way of looking at life is what they see of Islam. What do you want to say about what Islam is? What do you want people to know about Islam?

[Malala Yousafzai]

As far as I know Islam, the word Islam means peace. And it's a religion of brotherhood, humanity, and kindness and generosity. And what I have learned is that you have to be kind to each other. You have to respect each other's religious beliefs and cultural beliefs. And that I don't understand Islam, that the terrorists are showing that it's killing people.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And even in your family, when this happened, I think there was a time where your mother was saying, well, they're not Islam. They cannot be.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes. And when I was attacked, so my mother was worried about me, but she also thought about the mother of the person who shot me, because she thought that how would that mother feel whose son just shot three girls in a school van. It's like to be the mother of those people who shoot others.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Malala Yousafzai]

No.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

No.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Why should I? When you go through the situation that you are attacked and you are nearly killed and after that you survive and you are alive and you're still speaking out, then there's nothing else you should be afraid of. Like what else can they do? They can only kill me and it didn't work, so it means nothing else can work. And this moment is still alive. This moment that girls deserve education, this campaign, this voice, it's still alive.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And even if they do kill you.

[Malala Yousafzai]

They can't stop the movement. This is what I want to survive. Not me, but the moment.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Has this experience made you less afraid of death?

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes, definitely. Before the attack I used to think that how would it feel if you are attacked? And I had these thoughts coming again and again and I sometimes used to think that I would be attacked but not really expecting. But these thoughts were coming to my mind after I was attacked, as I said in my UN speech, that they changed nothing in my life except that weakness, fear and hopelessness died. And strength, power and courage was born. I feel stronger than before.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Your father and mother raised some kind of woman child. I want to meet your father. I've met him, so I want everybody else to meet your father. He's an extraordinary man. I mean, what do you want to say about him before he's here? Because it's hard when you're sitting next to the person to say all the things you really feel. Sometimes I could weep thinking about your father, because obviously I know that there is nature. You're born a certain way, and then there's nurturing and support. But I marvel at the kind of man your father, the kind of vision and foresight that he had to allow you to be a girl who could grow in her own truth, and to allow that in a culture that said, nobody else is doing that. I mean, your father may be the bravest person I've ever seen.

[Malala Yousafzai]

About my father, I can say that he let me to be who I wanted. He did not stop me. And if he would have become the typical father who stopped their daughters not to go to school, not to be independent, not to have a say, not to have the right to speak, I wouldn't have become who I am today. My father never, ever, ever stopped me from having a say and from saying that I too have an opinion. Even though If I'm like 8, 9, 10, 11, he said, yes, your view matters and you should give you ideas. And he would appreciate it. He would say, oh, well done. Amazing.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And that is not true of all women in your culture.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Yes, yes.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So I was asking your daughter, you share that Nobel Peace Prize in a way. Because to be able to raise a daughter who could live her truth, the way your daughter is so exemplary, speaks to you and speaks to your wife. And for you to be the kind of man who could see, I mean, we see in the movie, it's a really precious moment. And he named me Malala. When you're brought the scrolls of your family tree and there is not one female's name on the generations, and you look at it and say, I'm going to put my daughter's name Malala. Why did you do that?

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

In patriarchal society, usually women are associated only with men. Mr. So and so's daughter. Mr. So and so's mother. Even if you take a woman to the doctor and the doctor asks, what's this lady's name? And the man says, just write Mr. So and so's wife.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Wow.

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

Write Mr. So and so's daughter. For me, it was unacceptable. Malalay had a name and were you.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Doing this in defiance of the culture?

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

Yes, of course. I mean, I can't say that in patriarchal societies, fathers don't love their daughters. How you manifest your love is your love only controlling your daughters is your love only to make them like slaves? And you say that I am controlling your honor and chastity. That's why I am keeping you in four walls. I'm not educating you because it is my love. For me, love was something different for me because of my education, the way I was groomed. I learnt that love means freedom, love means respect, love means independence. And that made my treatment and my mindset and my behavior different towards my daughter.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So one of the things that struck me the most in he named me Malala is you said she was not shot by a person but by an ideology. What did you mean by that?

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

Yeah, that's very important question. The way some of the terrorists take Islam are the way they define it. I mean, if you ask the guys who attacked her, they don't know. They have been just told that or somebody told him that this girl, she's campaigning for Western education, then she should be killed.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

So she's forgiven them. She never had any anger. You didn't have any anger either?

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

Of course. I mean, I have an anger because of the power seekers who have defamed and distorted the true version of Islam. I have anger about that and I feel pity on the youth and on the young men who have been recruited for this horrible job. They don't know they have completely been brainwashed like robots. I feel pity for them and I feel pity for the boys who did that.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

In the beginning, in the film, it seems as though you were blaming yourself. You were blaming yourself that this had happened. How did you release yourself from that blame or burden?

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

I had a worry that the world may be thinking that, okay, she was a child and she should have been stopped by father. But when I asked her mother and I believe in her because when I go out of my home, I don't look in a mirror. I just stand in front of her and say, am I okay? And she says yes. And then I go out. So I just whispered in her ear and I said, what do you think? Am I responsible? What has happened to her? And she said no. And since this day, while we are sitting with you, Malala has never expressed a single word which conveys the difficulty she has gone through because of me. And I used to tell my wife that if they kill me, I have no other option. It's fine, It's a bad thing, but it's fine. But the worst thing I imagine if they attack my daughter.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And the worst thing happened.

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

And the worst thing happened.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

And the worst thing happened.

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

But man proposes. God disposes. God has his own plans.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

How do you define God? I'll ask you both.

[Malala Yousafzai]

For me, God really is another name for love, for kindness, mercy, heart, all these feelings. And I think God isn't that tiny, that conservative being who wants us to live a very strict life, like all the religious scholars used to say in Swat, like the Taliban, that you should dress in a specific way, you should talk in a specific way. And I used to wonder, like, is God just sitting there and looking at my shoes and looking at my dress and thinking, okay, so I have put on, like, my dress is too small, and now he's going to send me to hell. And this is, like, how you think of God? For me, God is the name of love, the name of kindness.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

I love that definition. And you, Siadi.

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

I think for me, God, I think when I become completely disappointed in an utter despair and I see nothing.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

To.

[Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala's Father)]

Help me, I find God beside myself. And I have seen God. When Malala was attacked.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You got closer, became closer. Yeah, yeah, Malala, finish this sentence. I believe.

[Malala Yousafzai]

I believe and I know for sure that if you have strong commitment within your heart, if you have love in your heart that you want to do something better, the whole world and the whole universe supports you in your cause. And I had this simple one word or one sentence dream that was to see every child going to school. And I spoke out for it, and my father spoke out for it in this small valley in Pakistan. Small. And that journey started, and now it's going on and getting better and developing each and every day.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

What do you believe about love?

[Malala Yousafzai]

I think love is the greatest thing on earth. It's what can be more beautiful than love and the love of your parents, the love of your brother. And after the attack, what I received was the love of people. And that really strengthened me. I might not have been able to.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Go forward, I think many ways. You know, I was praying. I didn't know you, and I was praying. I think you were healed by the prayers of the world. Thank you all for sharing this time.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Thank you.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

You are the bravest girl in the world.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Thank you so much. It's wonderful talking to you.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Thank you.

[Malala Yousafzai]

Thank you so much.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey, and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. You can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

[Interviewer (Oprah Winfrey)]

Rate and review this podcast.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Join me next week for another Super Soul conversation. Thank you for listening.

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[Oprah Winfrey]

Com.