Malala turns her fight for equality to women in sports
CNN
Malala Yousafzai is known by millions around the world as an activist and human rights campaigner, a voice of power and inspiration who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban at age 15. Perhaps less well known is her life as a sports fanatic.
Malala Yousafzai is known by millions around the world as an activist and human rights campaigner, a voice of power and inspiration who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban at age 15. Perhaps less well known is her life as a sports fanatic. But take any major women’s sports event from the past few years and you can bet on Yousafzai being in the stands, whether that’s cricket, soccer, basketball, netball or the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. She even chose to spend a freezing Valentine’s Day evening with her husband, Asser Malik, watching American rugby star Ilona Maher turn out for English club side Bristol Bears. Now, Yousafzai – mononamously referred to as Malala – is turning her fandom into a platform to invest in women’s sports around the world, both on a professional and amateur level. Recess is her latest initiative intended to enhance the rights of women and girls through sports, a concept which you could say has been in the pipeline since Yousafzai’s childhood in Pakistan. “I remember in school recess time when boys would go off to the local cricket playground and girls had to stay behind,” she said in an exclusive interview with CNN Sports. “From that point onwards, I knew that sports was something that girls did not have easy access to.” And in today’s global climate, a time of conflict and heightened political tension, Yousafzai believes that sports play a more crucial role than ever before.
