Emma Watson And Malala Yousafzai Finally Met And Had An Incredible Love-In About Feminism
"We all should be a feminist because feminism is another word for equality."
Having somehow never met before, actor and UN ambassador Emma Watson yesterday found herself in the same room as Nobel Peace Prize winner and all-round legend Malala Yousafzai. Both incredibly influential voices on the topics of feminism and activism, the pair sat down for a weighty 30-minute interview ahead of the screening of Yousafzai’s documentary He Named Me Malala at the Into Film Festival — a UK event catered towards 5-19 year olds.
But, like particularly appealing Lego kits, that age range should be taken as a rough suggestion. Covering gender, politics, personal experiences, and a whole lot of mutual respect, the resulting chat was definitely interesting to people of any age. A little like watching two shooting stars collide, it seems to have the power to both shower everything in beautiful stardust or kill us all (I have no idea how space works).
Into Film Festival opening Q&AToday I met Malala. She was giving, utterly graceful, compelling and intelligent. That might sound obvious but I was struck by this even more in person. There are lots of NGOs out there in the world doing great things… But if there were one I would put my money on to succeed and make change on this planet, it would be hers. (The Malala Fund). Malala isn’t messing around or mincing her words (one of the many reasons I love her). She has the strength of her convictions coupled with the kind of determination I rarely encounter… And it doesn’t seem to have been diminished by the success she has already had. And lastly…She has a sense of peace around her. I leave this for last because it is perhaps the most important. Maybe as a result of what she has been through? I personally think it is just who she is…Perhaps the most moving moment of today for me was when Malala addressed the issue of feminism. To give you some background, I had initially planned to ask Malala whether or not she was a feminist but then researched to see whether she had used this word to describe herself. Having seen that she hadn’t, I decided to take the question out before the day of our interview. To my utter shock Malala put the question back into one of her own answers and identified herself. Maybe feminist isn’t the easiest word to use… But she did it ANYWAY. You can probably see in the interview how I felt about this. She also gave me time at the end of the Q&A to speak about some of my own work, which she most certainly didn’t need to do, I was there to interview her. I think this gesture is so emblematic of what Malala and I went on to discuss. I’ve spoken before on what a controversial word feminism is currently. More recently, I am learning what a factionalized movement it is too. We are all moving towards the same goal. Let’s not make it scary to say you’re a feminist. I want to make it a welcoming and inclusive movement. Let’s join our hands and move together so we can make real change. Malala and I are pretty serious about it but we need you. With love, Emma x#HeNamedMeMalala #notjustamovieamovement Malala Fund Into Film
Posted by Emma Watson on Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Though the full interview is definitely worth a watch, one of the most interesting aspects was Yousafzai’s acknowledgment of her changing relationship with the term “feminist”. Addressing the stigma that the word can still carry, she told Watson she had some trouble applying it to herself, and took much inspiration from her words at the UN.
“When I heard [the word] the first time, I heard some negative responses and some positive ones, and I hesitated in saying, ‘Am I a feminist or not?’” she said. “Then after hearing your speech, when you said, ‘If not now, when? If not me, who?’ I decided there’s no way and there’s nothing wrong by calling yourself a feminist. So, I am a feminist and we all should be a feminist because feminism is another word for equality.”
This is something Watson later explicitly addressed when posting the video on Facebook.
“I’ve spoken before on what a controversial word feminism is currently,” she wrote. “More recently, I am learning what a factionalised movement it is too. We are all moving towards the same goal. Let’s not make it scary to say you’re a feminist. I want to make it a welcoming and inclusive movement. Let’s join our hands and move together so we can make real change. Malala and I are pretty serious about it but we need you.”
This all makes me very embarrassed that my biggest tween idols were Hanson and Avril Lavigne. 5-19 year olds have it pretty good now.
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Feature image via Emma Watson/Twitter.