Malala Yousafzai sold out theaters last weekend in Santa Barbara during her only appearance in Southern California. She spoke live at the Arlington Theatre and a video stream was simulcast to New Victoria Theater and UCSB Campbell Hall. The event served as a platform for Yousafzai to champion children's educational rights, an undertaking that has made her the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Laureate and the target of assassination attempts. “It was my voice that was my weapon,” Yousafzai said. “I'm not just one girl, not just one voice.”
Yousafzai was riding a bus home in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2012 when a member of the Taliban boarded the bus and asked for her by name. After being identified by the assassin, Yousafzai was shot; the bullet struck her in the forehead and traveled underneath her skin before it plunged into her shoulder. After the attack, Yousafzai was flown to Birmingham, England to undergo treatment and, within six months, had recovered enough to return to school. Education should be the number one priority of children, according to Yousafzai, who described high school dropouts as “really sad.”
Yousafzai compared the United States' free, high quality education to the schools in countries such as India and Pakistan, where a single teacher can teach up to 100 high-school-aged students. “It just looks like a building and a teacher teaching you,” Yousafzai said, but “I was looking for a deeper meaning.” According to Yousafzai, religious extremism is partly caused by lack of education and a lack of questioning that has been “denied in many countries.”