School children, teachers and education advocates were restless as the big men in suits at the UN paid tribute to Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai on the big screen but as the small girl began to address her audience, there was total stillness, British media reported on Saturday.
Malala may have been several thousand miles away in New York, but at the Southbank Centre in London it was as if she were in the room. Tears were brushed away and spontaneous applause rippled through the room as she made her historic speech, The Guardian reported.
In the moments after it finished and the applause died away, pupils from the Sarah Bonnell girls’ school in Stratford acted as if Malala were a rockstar. “She is just my idol, I look up to her so much,” said 13-year-old Arlina Hysenaj. “It’s like she doesn’t even know what revenge is, she just believes right can win.”
Earlier, Sarah Brown had addressed the event – hosted by a children’s charity organisation, Plan UK– pre-empting Malala’s own comment that terrorists were most afraid of education.
“This is what we have to ask ourselves: Why are the Taliban so scared of a girl carrying a book?” Brown asked.
“Malala, in her quiet and persistent way, is choosing to keep up her voice and energy campaigning for the right for every boy and girl to go to school. We all have our role to play in that.”
Brown – whose husband, the former prime minister Gordon Brown, had earlier praised Malala at the event in New York – congratulated the Pakistani government for passing a law making primary school education mandatory.
She urged the government to increase the amount dedicated to schooling, currently set at two percent of the total government expenditure.
“It’s a big challenge. We are trying to get 57 million children around the world into school, but we have one brave girl who is standing up tall for it, and we are all standing with her.”
Chief Executive of Plan UK, Tanya Barron, said the movement set in motion by Malala was making a real difference. “We want to use the energy Malala has been generating to rouse girls all around the world,” she said.
“She is the most fabulous beacon and is a rallying symbol for all of us, but it is not just about her: it’s about the right of every child to get an education.”
To the children in the room, Malala had already achieved so much. “I think she was so brave to risk her life just to go to school. I’m not sure I would do that,” said eight-year-old Felix Wanendeya, from Edmund Waller primary school in New Cross.
Amirah Dubbuisson 10, added, “Not a lot of people would stand up and go against what everyone was saying. She is an inspiration.”
Asked about how the speech made her feel, Ayesha Mangerah 13, from Sarah Bonnell school, gave a big smile. “Brilliant,” she said. “If she can do that, we can do anything.”
