Starring a trans actor as Biba in 'Joyland' was critical: Malala Yousafzai

Malala and Saim Sadiq talk about the importance of sharing stories worth telling and the scrutiny that follows

"In my next phase of activism, I have to look at other means of storytelling as well," Pakistan's youngest Nobel Prize Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, recently told Sky News an in exclusive interview.

She's seated beside Saim Sadiq, acclaimed filmmaker and Joyland's director. Malala serves as the executive producer for the award-winning film. "Activism needs to go beyond just working for an NGO. We need to find other ways in which we challenge the social norms that deny women their basic rights."

The 24-year-old ventured into the entertainment sector to tell the stories she deems worthy. Apart from several Apple Inc projects down the pipeline, Malala has also taken it upon herself to address the ongoing hounding surrounding Saim's recent offering. "The screen helps us to connect with the people," she said. "It also helps us to be more tolerant towards others."

Speaking about the film, Malala shared she was grateful for Saim casting a trans woman to play Biba in the film. "This was critical," Malala commented. "Everyone deserves their story to be told; what's more important is that it is told by them. A trans person should be given the rights just like anyone else. What's unfortunate is that we don't want people to talk about issues. We don't want their stories to make it to the screens. I hope we challenge that."

While the young filmmaker's Joyland still deals with resistance in the country he made it for, it has been lauded on the international stage. "It [Joyland] turned out to be this act of resistance," Saim told the outlet. "I realised when the film was being released that it is making a lot of people uncomfortable with just the existence of this film. Banning the film is perhaps the fastest way to make the activism work and to get everybody to talk about the issues we want them to talk about."

In a previous interview, Malala shared why she decided to board Joyland. “My goal was to bring attention to the stories that are often put aside, to give an opportunity to more voices from different corners of the world and focusing especially on women, people of color, and young artists,” Yousafzai told Variety in a recent interaction. “Starting with Joyland is such a moment of joy, because this is a Pakistani film produced by Pakistani directors, writers and actors, and I’m a Pakistani executive producer. This was such an incredible opportunity for me to begin with this. I always imagined a world where I could support more Pakistani content, more Pakistani artists.”

The activist further added, “The themes that are touched upon in this movie resonate with people all around the world. We hear about family dynamics, we hear about the relationship between parents and children, between husband and wife, between the work that you are expected to do inside your house compared to the role you want to play outside in society. And these are the things that we hear about in every corner of the world.”

Malala on opting to produce films, TV shows

"People often ask why I, an activist for education and women’s rights, want to produce films and TV shows," she shared in an opinion piece for The Hollywood Reporter. "It’s because I believe in the power of entertainment to connect people — whether that’s across the living room or across the world."

She went on to assert, "I’ve seen it in my own life. Growing up in Pakistan, I was aware of the high tensions between our government and India’s leaders. But that didn’t stop us from falling in love with Bollywood films and obsessing over actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. When we moved to the UK, my mother didn’t speak English. But she found she could share a laugh with her British neighbors over Mr Bean’s physical comedy. At Oxford, I spent too many hours watching The Big Bang Theory or Rick and Morty with my friends."

She further elaborated on why she decided to board the Oscar-nominated short, Stranger at The Gate. "Stories have the power to reveal our shared humanity and connect people across cultures, religions and countries. They can also teach us about ourselves, something I experienced the first time I saw Stranger at the Gate, a short documentary nominated for an Academy Award this year," Malala remarked. She added, "Everywhere we look today, we see people entrenching themselves so deeply in their beliefs that they can justify hatred of others. This hostility is not limited to one race, religion or creed, to one country or conflict, to one political party or social movement, to one gender or generation."

Malala then wrote, "I have experienced the damage unchecked division can cause. At 15 years old, I was shot in the head for speaking against the Pakistani Taliban’s ban on girls’ education. The assailant wasn’t a white soldier like Mac. He was a young man, not much older than me, a Muslim from my own community."

She further shared, "He, like so many others, had been led to believe that his narrow view of the world was the right one. That his Islam was better than mine. That the role of women and girls he accepted was the one we should all be forced to practice." 

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