EARLY in February, Tom Cruise made headlines as he attended the Oscars luncheon for Academy Award nominees – with some of the most famous names in the US and UK film industry taking selfies with the obliging Hollywood superstar.
But who was Cruise keen on taking a picture with?
That would be Malala Yousafzai.
They were snapped deep in conversation, with Cruise nominated for his role in Top Gun: Maverick and Malala attending as an executive producer of Stanger at the Gate, a documentary about a US Marine veteran who plotted to blow up a mosque in his hometown.
It is one of many hats Malala wears.
She is best known for speaking up for girls education and their rights despite being shot at in the head by the Taliban when she was only 15 at Swat Valley in Pakistan.
Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15, 2021, she voiced her concern about the women in Afghanistan would lose the social and educational gains made during the previous two decades.
She also urged the international community to press for an immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan and provide humanitarian aid to Afghan civilians.
Last year, Malala condemned the Taliban’s ban on women from attending private and public universities in Afghanistan.
In March 2022, she advocated for every woman's right to decide to wear what she likes and waded into the controversy around the wearing of hijabs at colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
“Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists - for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women,” she wrote on Twitter.
Malala arrived in Britain for life saving surgery at a Birmingham hospital and has since lived in the UK with her family.
She graduated from Oxford in 2020 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
In November of the following year, the Pakistan-born activist got married to Asser Malik in a small ceremony in Birmingham. He is the general manager of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s high-performance centre.
On their one year anniversary in 2022, the couple posted a sweet video where her husband was referred to as Mr Malala.
Wherever she travels, Malala is treated with respect and adoration, the kind reserved for statesmen of the word – it does tend to be mostly men.
On a trip to Pakistan late last year, only her second visit back home since she was shot at, Malala met flood victims and pledged $700,000 to organistaions in her home country.
"The scale of the destruction is astounding and the psychosocial and economic impact on the lives of people, especially women and girls cannot be overstated," Malala said in a statement released by her organisation, the Malala Fund.
"World leaders must step up, accelerate their response plans and mobilise funds needed to help Pakistan rebuild and support impacted populations."
In March 2021, Malala partnered with Apple TV+ to produce dramas and documentaries that focus on women and children.
Under the the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act of 2021, the US Agency of International Development (USAID) will award 50 per cent of the merit and needs-based scholarship programmes across a wide range of academic disciplines to Pakistani women who meet the existing eligibility criteria.
There is also a school in Fort Bend, US, which bears her name and is known as Malala Elementary.
Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network supports innovative education advocates and organisations challenging the policies and practices that prevent girls from going to school in their communities.
It welcomed23 new advocates and their organisations to the Education Champion Network in February 2023.
She is the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and her eponymus fund has invested $22 million in programmes across eight countries, according to her website.
