Malala Yousafzai quotes on education and women right from her best-selling book ‘I am Malala’ will inspire you to bring the change.
Malala Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997 is a Pakistani activist who stands for female education. She is also the youngest person and second Pakistani who received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Born in a Pashtun family in Pakistan, Malala developed a passion for education at a very young age. When people do not have figured out anything in their life, Malala Yousafzai at just the age of 19 years became the world’s most admired and inspiring teenager and one of the world’s most forceful advocates for the education of girls also.
Being an activist at a very young age, Malala Yousafzai first rose to prominence for writing a blog for the BBC Urdu in Pakistan. In that blog, Malala explained her life in the Taliban-occupied region in the northwest of the country.
Malala spoke against the Talibans’ ban on girls attending school in the blog. Even though her blog was published under a fictitious name, but her identity was eventually revealed when she became an increasingly vocal activist for girls’ right to education.
On 9 October 2012, when returning home in a bus after taking an exam, Malala was shot by a gunman in an assassination attempt in revenge for her activism for the girls’ right to education. Her recovery from the headshot was broadcast by the media all over the world and when got discharged in January 2013, her story has gone global.
Rather than being scared getting so close to death, Malala stepped up her campaigning at the age of 15, making her memoir I am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban an international bestseller, launching a movement for the girls and their right of education.
Her list of achievements is countless at a very young age including becoming the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, getting a hattrick in being featured as one of the most influential people globally by Time magazine in 2013, 2014, and 2015, awarded honorary Canadian citizenship becoming the youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada.
Malala’s fearless attitude against the Taliban has inspired so many girls making her an inspiration to countless girls and feminists around the world.
Here we are sharing a collection of Malala Yousafzai quotes on education and women rights from her speeches and the best-selling book I am Malala.
Malala Yousafzai Quotes
“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“With guns, you can kill terrorists, with the education you can kill terrorism.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“If you help someone in need you might also receive unexpected aid.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“To me, the moral of the story was that there will always be hurdles in life, but if you want to achieve a goal, you must continue.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“In my part of the world most people are known by their sons. I am one of the few lucky fathers known by his daughter.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Don’t accept good things from bad people.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
― Malala Yousafzai
I Am Malala Quotes
“Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow.” Education is neither Eastern nor Western, it is human.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“is not at all uncommon for women in my country to be illiterate, but to see my mother, a proud and intelligent woman, struggle to read the prices in the bazaar was an unspoken sadness for both of us, I think.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Don’t kill doves in the garden. You kill one and the others won’t come.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?”
― Malala Yousafzai
“One person had tried to silence me. And millions spoke out.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“So, yes, the Taliban have shot me. But they can only shoot a body. They cannot shoot my dreams, they cannot kill my beliefs and they cannot stop my campaign to see every girl and every boy in school.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“If they want every person in the world to be Muslim why don’t they show themselves to be good Muslims first?”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Quotes On Education
“We human beings don’t realize how great God is. He has given us an extraordinary brain and a sensitive loving heart. He has blessed us with two lips to talk and express our feelings, two eyes which see a world of colours and beauty, two feet which walk on the road of life, two hands to work for us, and two ears to hear the words of love. As I found with my ear, no one knows how much power they have in their each and every organ until they lose one.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“My mother always told me,” hide your face people are looking at you.” I would reply,” it does not matter; I am also looking at them.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I think it’s time that people update themselves, educate themselves, and inform themselves.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid — if you are afraid, you can’t move forward.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I don’t want revenge on the Taliban, I want education for sons and daughters of the Taliban.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I might have been calm, but my dear father was near tears. ‘Are you all right, jani?’ he said. ‘Aba,’ I said, trying to reassure him. ‘Everybody knows they will die someday. No one can stop death. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a Talib or from cancer.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Only learn what God says. His words are divine messages, which you are free and independent to interpret.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Life isn’t just about taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Our men think earning money and ordering around others is where power lies. They don’t think power is in the hands of the woman who takes care of everyone all day long, and gives birth to their children.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Famous Quotes
“We were scared, but our fear was not as strong as our courage.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I don’t want to be thought of as the “girl who was shot by the Taliban” but the “girl who fought for education.” This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“He believed that lack of education was the root of all of Pakistan’s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the power of education frightens them. they are afraid of women.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!”
― Malala Yousafzai
“At night our fear is strong . . . but in the morning, in the light, we find our courage again.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“My mother was always trying to think up plans for what she would do if the Taliban came. She thought of sleeping with a knife under her pillow. I said I could sneak into the toilet and call the police. My brothers and I thought of digging a tunnel. Once again I prayed for a magic wand to make the Taliban disappear.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Mahatma Gandhi said, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Inspirational Quotes
“If people were silent nothing would change.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I couldn’t understand what the Taliban were trying to do. “They are abusing our religion,” I said in interviews. “How will you accept Islam if I put a gun to your head and say Islam is the true religion? If they want every person in the world to be Muslim, why don’t they show themselves to be good Muslims first?”
― Malala Yousafzai
“His sisters — my aunts — did not go to school at all, just like millions of girls in my country. Education had been a great gift for him. He believed that lack of education was the root of all of Pakistan’s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected. He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls. The school that my father dreamed of would have desks and a library, computers, bright posters on the walls and, most important, washrooms.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I don’t want awards, I want my daughter. I wouldn’t exchange a single eyelash of my daughter for the whole world.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I was a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Kindness can only be repaid with kindness. It can’t be repaid with expressions like ‘thank you’ and then forgotten.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“It seemed to me that everyone knows they will die one day. My feeling was nobody can stop death; it doesn’t matter if it comes from a Talib or cancer. So I should do whatever I want to do.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Tell me how can one live without daughters.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Education is our right, I said. Just as it is our right to sing. Islam has given us this right and says that every girl and boy should go to school. The Quran says we should seek knowledge, study hard and learn the mysteries of our world.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“What a strange world it was when a girl who wanted to go to school had to defy militants with machine guns – as well as her own family.”
― Malala Yousafzai
I Am Malala Book Quotes
“I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I am convinced Socialism is the only answer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a victorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of bigotry and exploitation.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“But God has also given us the power to forget, so that when the tragedy is over we carry on as normal.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“What have I done wrong that I should be afraid? All I want to do is go to school. And that is not a crime. That is my right.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“One year ago I left my home for school and never returned.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“education is our basic right. Not just in the West; Islam too has given us this right. Islam says every girl and every boy should go to school. In the Quran it is written, God wants us to have knowledge. He wants us to know why the sky is blue and about oceans and stars. I know it’s a big struggle—around the world there are fifty-seven million children who are not in primary school, thirty-two million of them girls.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“In his pocket he kept a poem written by Martin Niemöller, who had lived in Nazi Germany. First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I reassured my mother that it didn’t matter to me if my face was not symmetrical. Me, who had always cared about my appearance, how my hair looked! But when you see death, things change. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t smile or blink properly,” I told her. “I’m still me, Malala. The important thing is God has given me my life.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I love physics because it is about truth, a world determined by principles and laws—no messing around or twisting things like in politics, particularly those in my country.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Someone gave me a copy of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a fable about a shepherd boy who travels to the Pyramids in search of treasure when all the time it’s at home. I loved that book and read it over and over again. ‘When you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it,’ it says. I don’t think that Paulo Coelho had come across the Taliban or our useless politicians.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Quotes About Women’s Rights
“Some people are afraid of ghosts, some of spiders or snakes- in those days we were afraid of our fellow human beings.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“When I was around four years old I asked my father, “Aba, what color are you?” He replied, “I don’t know, a bit white, a bit black.” “It’s like when one mixes milk with tea,” I said. He laughed a lot, but as a boy he had been so self-conscious about being dark-skinned that he went to the fields to get buffalo milk to spread on his face, thinking it would make him lighter. It was only when he met my mother that he became comfortable in his own skin. Being loved by such a beautiful girl gave him confidence.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“If I am speaking for my rights, for the rights of girls, I am not doing anything wrong. It’s my duty to do so. God wants to see how we behave in such situations. There is a saying in the Quran, “The falsehood has to go and the truth will prevail.” If one man, Fazlullah, can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it? I wondered. I prayed to God every night to give me strength.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“If you want to resolve a dispute, or come out from conflict, the very first thing is to speak the truth. If you have a headache, and tell the doctor you have a stomach ache, how can the doctor help? You must speak the truth. The truth will abolish fear.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“My father’s voice is so loud my mother often jokes that he doesn’t need to make phone calls, he can just shout.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“If people volunteered in the same way to construct schools or roads or even clear the river of plastic wrappers, by God, Pakistan would become a paradise within a year.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“We felt like the Taliban saw us as like little dolls to control, telling us what to do and how to dress. I thought if God wanted us to be like that He would not have made us all different.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“The boys learn the Quran by heart, rocking back and forth as they recite. They learn that there is no such thing as science or literature, that dinosaurs never existed and man never went to the moon.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Quotes, Sayings, Phrases In English
“To sit down on a chair and read my books with all my friends at school is my right. To see each and every human being with a smile of happiness is my wish. I am Malala. My world has changed but I have not.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“How great God is! He has given us eyes to see the beauty of the world, hands to touch it, a nose to experience all its fragrance, and a heart to appreciate it all. But we don’t realize how miraculous our senses are until we lose one.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“told him that instead of focusing on eradicating terrorism through war, he should focus on eradicating it through education.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“We liked to be known as the clever girls. When we decorated our hands with henna for holidays and weddings, we drew calculus and chemical formulae instead of flowers and butterflies.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Like my father I’ve always been a daydreamer, and sometimes I’d imagine that on the way home a terrorist might jump out and shoot me on those steps. I wondered what I would do. Maybe I’d take off my shoes and hit him, but then I’d think if I did that there would be no difference between me and a terrorist. It would be better to plead, “OK, shoot me, but first listen to me. What you are doing is wrong. I’m not against you personally, I just want every girl to go to school.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“That’s when he lifted up a black pistol. I later learned it was a Colt .45. Some of the girls screamed. Moniba tells me I squeezed her hand.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Though we loved school, we hadn’t realized how important education was until the Taliban tried to stop us. Going to school, reading and doing our homework wasn’t just a way of passing time, it was our future.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“We don’t have any option. We are dependent on these mullahs to learn the Quran,” he said. “But you just use him to learn the literal meaning of the words; don’t follow his explanations and interpretation. Only learn what God says. His words are divine messages, which you are free and independent to interpret.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“It is my belief God sends the solution first and the problem later,” replied Dr. Javid.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“if we believe in something greater than our lives, then our voices will only multiply even if we are dead.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai Quotes On Gender Equality
“We thought speaking in English meant you were more intelligent. We were wrong of course. It does not matter what language you choose, the important thing is the words you use to express yourself.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I will protect your freedom, Malala. Carry on with your dreams.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“We Pashtuns love shoes but don’t love the cobbler; we love our scarves and blankets but do not respect the weaver. Manual workers made a great contribution to our society but received no recognition, and this is the reason so many of them joined the Taliban—to finally achieve status and power.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“I think everyone makes a mistake at least once in their life. The important thing is what you learn from it.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“It’s not just the Taliban killing children. Sometimes it’s drone attacks, sometimes it’s wars, sometimes it’s hunger. And sometimes it’s their own family. In June two girls my age were murdered in Gilgit, which is a little north of Swat, for posting a video online showing themselves dancing in the rain wearing traditional dress and headscarves. Apparently their own stepbrother shot them.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“In Pakistan when women say they want independence, people think this means we don’t want to obey our fathers, brothers or husbands. But it does not mean that. It means we want to make decisions for ourselves. We want to be free to go to school or to go to work. Nowhere is it written in the Quran that a woman should be dependent on a man. The word has not come down from the heavens to tell us that every woman should listen to a man.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“For us girls that doorway was like a magical entrance to our own special world. As we skipped through, we cast off our headscarves like winds puffing away clouds to make way for the sun then ran helter-skelter up the steps. At the top of the steps was an open courtyard with doors to all the classrooms.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“When someone takes away your pens you realize quite how important education is.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“Outside his office my father had a framed copy of a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to his son’s teacher, translated into Pashto. It is a very beautiful letter, full of good advice. “Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books…But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside,” it says. “Teach him it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat.”
― Malala Yousafzai
“read thousands of books and I will power myself with knowledge. Pens and books are the weapons that defeat terrorism.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Did you get inspired by these Malala Yousafzai quotes?
Malala Yousafzai has millions of people all around the world to educate their daughters by teaching them the importance of every person’s life. Despite being shot and receiving several death threats by terrorists, Malala continue to grow her advocacy and made it an international movement.
The work she is doing for women’s education and her courage to fight against terrorism is inspiring and gives hope to people all over the world. We hope these Malala Yousafzai quotes on education and women’s rights will inspire you to never call it quits.
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