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MALALA YOUSAFZAI SPEECH ANALYSIS 23

Malala Yousafzai Speech Analysis

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Malala Yousafzai Speech Analysis

Introduction

Addressing the public or a specific audience is only effective through a well organized speech that focuses on the issues addressed by the speaker. Therefore, a speech is powerful tool that can be used in influencing the public towards a particular direction using various rhetorical elements of speech. Rhetorical elements that are applied by most speakers are dependent on the verbal ability of the speaker to understand the collective needs of the audience, their formal or informal communication needs, and socio-cultural orientation. Primarily, the communication skills of the speaker makes the best or the worst speech. Malala Yousafzai delivered one of the most celebrated speeches since she was able to develop a comprehensive understanding of the audience in both presentation and participation in the process of speech delivery. It is necessary to note that she was perfect in the application of rhetorical theory to facilitate the articulation of issues addressed within the speech. Her award winning speech has been a significant point of reference in the fight for the girl child’s right for education. This paper gives a comprehensive analysis of Malala Yousafzai speech regarding the use of rhetorical tools and its impacts to the entire society.

Description of the artifact and the research question

On December 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai received her Nobel Peace Prize in the city of Oslo, the capital of Norway, for her valiant struggle against oppression of the children and young people especially the rights of the girl child to obtain education in Pakistan and other countries where girls are marginalized. At the age of 17, Malala became the youngest person in history to win the award and also the first Pashtun as well as the first Pakistan to win the prize (Nobelprize.org, 2017). Malala was born in the village of Mingora, in the Swat district of northwestern Pakistan on July 12, 1997. At the time she was born, her father was a school owner and an activist in the matters concerning education. It was from him that Malala started developing interests in education. Even at the time when she was just a toddler, the father says that her thirst for education was overwhelming (Smith-Spark, 2017). She used to crawl into classes and try to imitate teachers much to the amusement of the class. However, in the year 2007, when she was only 10 years old, her life took a drastic turn when Taliban took control of the Swat valley where she lived and made it clear that there was no more education in the region especially for the girl child. To make good their threat, the Taliban destroyed more than 400 schools and imposed heavy punishment of anybody who dared disobeyed their orders (Nobelprize.org, 2017). Girls were not just banned from going to school but also attending cultural activities like dancing and even watching television.

The destruction of schools by the Taliban and subsequent discrimination against girls prompted Malala to start sharp criticism against the activities of the Taliban. At one point, Malala asked on a Pakistani TV why the Taliban would dare take away her inalienable right to education (Nobelprize.org, 2017). Determined to fight even harder, Malala started blogging in Urdu language using anonymous identity on a BBC website (Topping, 2017). Using the name Gul Makai, Malala spoke mostly about the life in Swat Valley under the oppressive reign of the Taliban. The BBC picked on some of her stories an in the year 2011, Malala got her first opportunity to write a diary on the BBC’s website under the title “I’m Afraid.” Although many people were happy with what Malala was doing, some people were irritated. On the morning of October 9, 2012, Malala was viciously attacked by an armed Talib who fired three gunshots at and left her critically injured (Nobelprize.org, 2017). She was later airlifted to the United Kingdom where she received treatment. At the time she received her Nobel Peace Prize, Malala was living in the United Kingdom.

The acceptance speech that Malala read on the day she received the Nobel Peace Prize was meant to appreciate the work done by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, her parents, friends and everyone who had contributed towards her struggle to free the children and young people from oppression (Smith-Spark, 2017). She appreciated the Norwegian Nobel Committee for selecting her among many people across the world to receive the prestigious award. She is aware that winning the award puts her in the category of the world’s greatest leaders like Martin Luther King Junior, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama among others (Topping, 2017). The prize according to Malala is her single greatest achievement not just in her family but the to Pakistan in general. Malala also appreciated the fact that her father had the opportunity to deprive her of education like the Taliban demanded but he chose to give Malala freedom to express herself and speak to the world about her problems. In her words, Malala appreciates her father for “not clipping her wings and for letting her fly” (Nobelprize.org, 2017). To Malala, her father remains a great inspiration because the father planted the first seeds of education in her life. At the age of 10, the father could not help but to be proud of an excellent educational activist the Malala had become.

In the speech, Malala also appreciated her mother for letting her speak the truth. Most women in Pakistan, for instance, are oppressed to an extent that they do not speak about the issues affecting their lives. Malala’s mother, on the other hand, allowed her daughter to freely express herself (Smith-Spark, 2017). Apart from the mother, Malala appreciated the support she had received from friends across the world including Amina from Nigeria who kept encouraging her to keep fighting for what was right for every child. Malala said she was not the only person who deserved the award but it also belonged to her friends. She said completed her speech by asking every leader present and even absent during the Nobel prize to support the education of children regardless of gender because it is only through education that they may have the capacity to know the truth (Indiatoday.intoday.in,2017). She dedicates the funds she received from the winning the prestigious award to Malala Foundation in order to assist many oppressed children across the world to obtain the basic education.

In this rhetorical analysis, the research question is; did the speaker apply various rhetorical devices such as logos, ethos and pathos effectively and what are some the immediate as well as long-term effects of the rhetoric on the audience. The critical methods below describe how the speech was analyzed.

Description of the critical methods

The speech was analyzed using qualitive research in which both inartistic and artistic proofs that might have been used by the speaker to appeal to the audience were examined. The inartistic proofs include letters, contracts and witness testimonies that may have been used by the speaker to enhance her appeal to the audience. On the other hand, the speaker may have also applied artistic proof such as logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to the audience. The logos include the logical arguments that may be based on inductive and deductive reasoning and it is possible to identify areas in which the speaker used either inductive or deductive reasoning to appeal to the audience using logos (Smith-Spark, 2017). The ethos includes the general integrity of the artist that may have been used to enhance communication to the audience. Finally, the speaker may also rely on her voice or any form of emotional appeal to gain the attention of the audience. The role of the critical analysis is to examine if the above artistic and inartistic proofs were used effectively to enhance communication to the audience.

Report of the findings of the critical analysis

Organization

The speech has been organized into three main parts. In the first part of the speech, the author appreciates every effort that she has received from others to assist in achieving the dreams. In the second part, the author talks about her life and struggle for the rights of children and young people who were deprived of education and other basic needs. In the final part, the speakers explains why she needs the support of everybody, more than ever, to ensure that her struggle becomes the last across the universe to ensure every child is given the basic needs including the right to education (Indiatoday.intoday.in, 2017). The speaker has spent about half of the speech talking about her life, the reasons why she had to struggle for the rights of children and the immense support she received from the media, parents friends and even world leaders (Topping, 2017). The reason why the speaker focused on talking more about her life and struggle was to inform the world about the challenges facing children across the world. People who might have heard about the name Malala on television deserved an opportunity to understand what Malala went through and why she had to fight the way she had fought. Once the audience has understood her life and factors that turned her into an activist, it would be easier to ask for support.

Logically, the author has relied on inductive reasoning to appeal to the audience. An inductive reasoning is a bottom-up approach in which an artist, writer or speaker starts from the causes of the problem before making conclusions. Sometimes, the inductive reasoning may be referred to as the cause-effect analysis because it starts by considering the causes of the problem before coming up with the solution drawn from the causes. Was this approach appropriate for the audience? Although some people would argue that it was important for the speaker to ask for the support before giving the reasons, the audience needed to understand Malala before listening to what she was asking the to do. For example, when wooing investors, many companies start by telling investors the history of the company and what the company had achieved before asking for the support. Therefore, the inductive reasoning was used to capture the attention of the audience before asking for their support.

During the speech, Malala was quite careful not to appear as selfish by collecting the prize at the expense of the people especially her friends who assisted her to achieve the dreams. She came with her friends including Shazia, Kainat Soomro, Mezon and Amina (Nobelprize.org, 2017). The presence of her friends was like a testimony about the struggles that the ladies have endured to secure education for many marginalized children across the world. People who saw Mezon, Amina, Shazia and Kainat at the ceremony saw the need to support the girl child because they brought different stories from different places across the world. Malala says that she is telling her story not because it is unique but because it is the same story that is told by many girls as she was among the 66 million girls deprived of education (Smith-Spark, 2017). It was only unfortunate that Malala did not spare time to read at least one letter from the girls has appealed to across the world. At some points in her speech, Malala talked about the letters she has received from several girls who are deprived of education. Therefore, to make her point more appealing, she ought to have included at least one of the letters as an inartistic proof (Nobelprize.org, 2017). Although her life is enough proof about the struggle, it looks more interesting if many people share her story across the universe.

Style

The type of language that was used by the speaker was crucial towards enhancing understanding among the audience. The speaker relied on a persuasive language throughout the speech starting from the appreciations, life and struggles, need for education and the call to end oppression against children. While she was talking about her life, Malala started by describing the meaning of her name which she says was derived from the Pashtun word ‘Malalai’ which implies sadness (Nobelprize.org, 2017). Malala said that her grandfather used to cheer her up by using the name Malala that means happiness. According to the speaker, Malala should be the happiest girl in the world but the oppression has turned her into a struggler. The struggle for the rights of the children, according to the speaker has given her very many names drawn from various places she has visited (Nobelprize.org, 2017). She is sometimes known as the lady who was attacked by Taliban while others call her the woman who simply fought for her rights and that of children from different parts of the world. The author persuades the audience by telling then that she is no longer fighting for the rights of Malala but the rights of many children who are abandoned in various countries across the world. Since they may not have the same opportunity to air their grievances, Malala takes the opportunity to raise their voices. With the support from various people across the world, Malala believes that it will be the last time people struggle for children to be given their basic rights.

Apart from her struggles, Malala relied heavily on her morality and integrity to appeal to the audience. In her opening statements, Malala appreciated her mother for giving her the opportunity to speak the truth. She also believes that one of the reasons why the children should be allowed to go to school is to give them an opportunity to know the truth. Therefore, her entire has been based on the truth (Topping, 2017). This explains why she chose to criticize the activities of the Taliban instead of being brainwashed and forced into early marriages. She believes that the reason why girls were banned from watching television was to deny them the opportunity to know the truth. Therefore, since her life has been based on the truth including being shot because she chose to tell girls the truth, everything that Malala talks about is believable (Indiatoday.intoday.in, 2017). She talks about the type of discrimination that she has experienced alongside her friends because of their choices to do the right things. In other words, Malala’s life is not full of controversies which may make one cast doubts on her sentiments. Malala’s honesty and self-denial attributes placed her in the position to ask for financial support from the people whom she knows are willing to support the education of not only the girl child but also children in general.

Delivery of the speech

How effective was Malala’s tone in delivering her message to the audience? Throughout the speech, Malala relied on pathos as rhetorical device to appeal to the crowd. Malala’s tone shifted from happiness, to sadness and ends in an encouraging note (YouTube, 2017). For example, when she was paying gratitude to everyone who supported her in the struggle, Malala was in jovial mood. Her tone reflected happiness and appreciation towards the support she has received across the world. At this point, Malala’s jovial tone was normal because people are likely to express happiness when receiving awards (YouTube, 2017). An award is a reflection of respect and honor that people show towards the behavior or actions of an individual. It is only normal if the awards are received in a jovial tone and Malala did not disappoint the crowd.

However, when she began talking about her life and struggles, her tone shifts from that of happiness to sadness. She is careful not to express her sadness in tears because it was not a day of showing pity. She says that, “It is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time” (Nobelprize.org, 2017). In other words, Malala was not going to spend time crying over the pain she has gone through as well as that of other children but she is ready to take action so that it become the last time children are subjected through the same pain she had endured. It is also impressive, that Malala spoke about the shooting incident without suffering from any post traumatic effect (YouTube, 2017). Some people would have avoided the incident to minimize chances of emotional breakdown. At the end of her speech, the tone changes from that of sadness into an encouraging note. She uses the last part of her speech to call for support from every leader and everybody that is interested in supporting the girlchild education to take action in whichever way they can.

Impact of the artifact to the audience

Malala’s speech has been described across the world as jaw-dropping among the people who listened to her from the start to the end. She challenged the crowd by asking them why countries that are perceived to be strong are stronger towards creating war but weaker towards giving books to the children (NPR.org, 2017). One of the immediate response was the loud applause and the standing ovation that Malala received at the end of her speech. However, Malala Fund has received donations from leaders across the world to support the education of the girl child. Currently, Malala Fund supports children from various countries across the world including Pakistan, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Yemen. The purpose of the funds is to ensure girls obtain 12 years of quality education to give them the opportunity to transform their lives.

Conclusion

Malala’s approval speech is considered as one of the most inspirational speeches to have been delivered in the history of the awards. In her speech, she chose to talk about peace and condemn the activities of the Taliban as well as other groups of terrorists who, according to Malala, are not acting in accordance with the Islamic teachings. She talks about the truth and challenges countries that are perceived to be strong to channel their efforts towards educating the world and not promoting war. Her dream is to live in a world where every child is given the right to quality education regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity.

References

Engel, P. (2017). Malala Gives A Jaw-Dropping Speech To Accept Her Nobel Peace Prize. Business Insider. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/malala-nobel-peace-prize-acceptance-speech-2014-12?IR=T

Indiatoday.intoday.in, (2017). Full text of Malala Yousafzais Nobel speech. Indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nobel-peace-prize-malala-yousafzais-nobel-speech-kailash-satyarthi/1/406167.html

Nobelprize.org, (2017). Malala Yousafzai - Biographical. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2014/yousafzai-bio.html

Nobelprize.org, (2017). Malala Yousafzai - Nobel Lecture. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2014/yousafzai-lecture_en.html

NPR.org, (2017). What Will Malala's Nobel Peace Prize Mean For Girls' Education?. NPR.org. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2014/10/15/355160473/what-will-malalas-nobel-peace-prize-mean-for-girls-education

Smith-Spark, L. (2017). Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi win Nobel. CNN. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/10/world/europe/nobel-peace-prize/

Topping, A. (2017). Malala Yousafzai accepts Nobel peace prize with attack on arms spending. the Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/10/malala-yousafzia-nobel-peace-prize-attack

YouTube, (2017). Malala Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. YouTube. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hx0ajieM3M

Appendix: Copy of Malala’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2014/yousafzai-lecture_en.html.

Nobel Lecture by Malala Yousafzai, Oslo, 10 December 2014.

Bismillah hirrahmanirrahim.
In the name of God, the most merciful, the most beneficent.

Your Majesties, Your royal highnesses, distinguished members of the Norweigan Nobel Committee,

Dear sisters and brothers, today is a day of great happiness for me. I am humbled that the Nobel Committee has selected me for this precious award.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and love. Thank you for the letters and cards that I still receive from all around the world. Your kind and encouraging words strengthens and inspires me.

I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love. Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly. Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth - which we strongly believe is the true message of Islam. And also thank you to all my wonderful teachers, who inspired me to believe in myself and be brave.

I am proud, well in fact, I am very proud to be the first Pashtun, the first Pakistani, and the youngest person to receive this award. Along with that, along with that, I am pretty certain that I am also the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers. I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that.

I am also honoured to receive this award together with Kailash Satyarthi, who has been a champion for children's rights for a long time. Twice as long, in fact, than I have been alive. I am proud that we can work together, we can work together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani, they can work together and achieve their goals of children's rights.

Dear brothers and sisters, I was named after the inspirational Malalai of Maiwand who is the Pashtun Joan of Arc. The word Malala means grief stricken", sad", but in order to lend some happiness to it, my grandfather would always call me Malala – The happiest girl in the world" and today I am very happy that we are together fighting for an important cause.

This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.

I am here to stand up for their rights, to raise their voice… it is not time to pity them. It is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time, the last time, so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education.

I have found that people describe me in many different ways.

Some people call me the girl who was shot by the Taliban.

And some, the girl who fought for her rights.

Some people, call me a "Nobel Laureate" now.

However, my brothers still call me that annoying bossy sister. As far as I know, I am just a committed and even stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education, who wants to see women having equal rights and who wants peace in every corner of the world.

Education is one of the blessings of life—and one of its necessities. That has been my experience during the 17 years of my life. In my paradise home, Swat, I always loved learning and discovering new things. I remember when my friends and I would decorate our hands with henna on special occasions. And instead of drawing flowers and patterns we would paint our hands with mathematical formulas and equations.

We had a thirst for education, we had a thirst for education because our future was right there in that classroom. We would sit and learn and read together. We loved to wear neat and tidy school uniforms and we would sit there with big dreams in our eyes. We wanted to make our parents proud and prove that we could also excel in our studies and achieve those goals, which some people think only boys can.

But things did not remain the same. When I was in Swat, which was a place of tourism and beauty, suddenly changed into a place of terrorism. I was just ten that more than 400 schools were destroyed. Women were flogged. People were killed. And our beautiful dreams turned into nightmares.

Education went from being a right to being a crime.

Girls were stopped from going to school.

When my world suddenly changed, my priorities changed too.

I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed.

I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.

We could not just stand by and see those injustices of the terrorists denying our rights, ruthlessly killing people and misusing the name of Islam. We decided to raise our voice and tell them: Have you not learnt, have you not learnt that in the Holy Quran Allah says: if you kill one person it is as if you kill the whole humanity?

Do you not know that Mohammad, peace be upon him, the prophet of mercy, he says, do not harm yourself or others".

And do you not know that the very first word of the Holy Quran is the word Iqra", which means read"?

The terrorists tried to stop us and attacked me and my friends who are here today, on our school bus in 2012, but neither their ideas nor their bullets could win.

We survived. And since that day, our voices have grown louder and louder.

I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not.

It is the story of many girls.

Today, I tell their stories too. I have brought with me some of my sisters from Pakistan, from Nigeria and from Syria, who share this story. My brave sisters Shazia and Kainat who were also shot that day on our school bus. But they have not stopped learning. And my brave sister KainatSoomro who went through severe abuse and extreme violence, even her brother was killed, but she did not succumb.

Also my sisters here, whom I have met during my Malala Fund campaign. My 16-year-old courageous sister, Mezon from Syria, who now lives in Jordan as refugee and goes from tent to tent encouraging girls and boys to learn. And my sister Amina, from the North of Nigeria, where Boko Haram threatens, and stops girls and even kidnaps girls, just for wanting to go to school.

Though I appear as one girl, though I appear as one girl, one person, who is 5 foot 2 inches tall, if you include my high heels. (It means I am 5 foot only) I am not a lone voice, I am not a lone voice, I am many.

I am Malala. But I am also Shazia.

I am Kainat.

I am KainatSoomro.

I am Mezon.

I am Amina. I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of education. And today I am not raising my voice, it is the voice of those 66 million girls.

Sometimes people like to ask me why should girls go to school, why is it important for them. But I think the more important question is why shouldn't they, why shouldn't they have this right to go to school.

Dear sisters and brothers, today, in half of the world, we see rapid progress and development. However, there are many countries where millions still suffer from the very old problems of war, poverty, and injustice.

We still see conflicts in which innocent people lose their lives and children become orphans. We see many people becoming refugees in Syria, Gaza and Iraq. In Afghanistan, we see families being killed in suicide attacks and bomb blasts.

Many children in Africa do not have access to education because of poverty. And as I said, we still see, we still see girls who have no freedom to go to school in the north of Nigeria.

Many children in countries like Pakistan and India, as Kailash Satyarthi mentioned, many children, especially in India and Pakistan are deprived of their right to education because of social taboos, or they have been forced into child marriage or into child labour.

One of my very good school friends, the same age as me, who had always been a bold and confident girl, dreamed of becoming a doctor. But her dream remained a dream. At the age of 12, she was forced to get married. And then soon she had a son, she had a child when she herself was still a child – only 14. I know that she could have been a very good doctor.

But she couldn't ... because she was a girl.

Her story is why I dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize money to the Malala Fund, to help give girls quality education, everywhere, anywhere in the world and to raise their voices. The first place this funding will go to is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan—especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.

In my own village, there is still no secondary school for girls. And it is my wish and my commitment, and now my challenge to build one so that my friends and my sisters can go there to school and get quality education and to get this opportunity to fulfil their dreams.

This is where I will begin, but it is not where I will stop. I will continue this fight until I see every child, every child in school.

Dear brothers and sisters, great people, who brought change, like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Aung San Suu Kyi, once stood here on this stage. I hope the steps that Kailash Satyarthi and I have taken so far and will take on this journey will also bring change – lasting change.

My great hope is that this will be the last time, this will be the last time we must fight for education. Let's solve this once and for all.

We have already taken many steps. Now it is time to take a leap.

It is not time to tell the world leaders to realise how important education is - they already know it - their own children are in good schools. Now it is time to call them to take action for the rest of the world's children.

We ask the world leaders to unite and make education their top priority.

Fifteen years ago, the world leaders decided on a set of global goals, the Millennium Development Goals. In the years that have followed, we have seen some progress. The number of children out of school has been halved, as Kailash Satyarthi said. However, the world focused only on primary education, and progress did not reach everyone.

In year 2015, representatives from all around the world will meet in the United Nations to set the next set of goals, the Sustainable Development Goals. This will set the world's ambition for the next generations.

The world can no longer accept, the world can no longer accept that basic education is enough. Why do leaders accept that for children in developing countries, only basic literacy is sufficient, when their own children do homework in Algebra, Mathematics, Science and Physics?

Leaders must seize this opportunity to guarantee a free, quality, primary and secondary education for every child.

Some will say this is impractical, or too expensive, or too hard. Or maybe even impossible. But it is time the world thinks bigger.

Dear sisters and brothers, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don't. Why is it that countries which we call strong" are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it, why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so hard?

We are living in the modern age and we believe that nothing is impossible. We have reached the moon 45 years ago and maybe will soon land on Mars. Then, in this 21st century, we must be able to give every child quality education.

Dear sisters and brothers, dear fellow children, we must work… not wait. Not just the politicians and the world leaders, we all need to contribute. Me. You. We. It is our duty.

Let us become the first generation to decide to be the last , let us become the first generation that decides to be the last that sees empty classrooms, lost childhoods, and wasted potentials.

Let this be the last time that a girl or a boy spends their childhood in a factory.

Let this be the last time that a girl is forced into early child marriage.

Let this be the last time that a child loses life in war.

Let this be the last time that we see a child out of school.

Let this end with us.

Let's begin this ending ... together ... today ... right here, right now. Let's begin this ending now.

Thank you so much.