A documentary based on Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafazi and her fight for women’s equality in education was screened at an MSC FLI event Wednesday.
The event, titled “Learning Is For Everyone,” consisted of a free viewing of the documentary “He Named Me Malala” in an effort to promote advocacy of education for women and girls. The film, which follows Yousafazi’s journey to becoming the first 17-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, led to a larger discussion about educational and social issues concerning women.
The film follows Yousafzai after she was shot in the head by the Taliban up until she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2014. It focused on her and her father’s shared belief in the right for women to be educated based on Islam.
Culture and curriculum professor Valerie Hill-Jackson spoke before and after the film about the issues, and showed a presentation of statistics on education.
The presentation noted the disparity between women in education and men in education. A slide said although white women make up 90 percent of educators, in each level of schooling they still get paid less than male educators overall.
“There are 3 billion school-aged children on this planet. Of those those 3 billion, nearly 100 million of them are not going to school,” Hill-Jackson said. “Of those 100 million, 66 million of them are girls.”
Hailey Wedlich, marketing freshman and member of MSC F.L.I., said the organization started planning the program in October.
“The purpose of the program was to get freshmen involved in something they were passionate about, and education was one of those things,” Wedlich said. “We got in contact with The Malala Fund and we actually got the rights [to show the film]. They only give it to certain organization.”
Erin Jaques, psychology sophomore, is the assistant public relations director of MSC F.L.I. Jaques said the movie screening and the discussion was impacting for the audience.
“I’m so incredibly grateful for the committee for standing behind this program and the community for coming out,” Jaques said. “I think the audience speaks for themselves. They stood up and gave their testimonies.”
