Malala Yousafzai needs no introduction - amazing young girl fighting for education rights for women, shot by the Taliban, awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Now the subject of a new doc by Davis Guggenheim, director of An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud and other documentaries.
This documentary is called** He Named Me Malala**.
I know nothing detailed about Malala’s story - I assume “He” is her father? I guess I am starting this thread to ask that and observe that, for a documentary about a girl championing women’s rights “He Named Me…” sounds, to me, a bit off at first read.
I wish Malala and the documentary nothing but success. But does anyone else have a similar first reaction to the name of the documentary?
Not to take anything away from Malala but she could not have been as successful in her fight if she didn’t have the backing of her father. He is an educator and a champion of women’s rights himself, and treats his daughter as an equal human instead of lesser. He says she’s already gone further than he has when it comes to leading, especially since being shot. But no doubt, he played a huge role in both her passion for her cause(s) and her ability to become a leader of people.
ETA: Her book is called “I Am Malala” but the documentary is “He Named Me Malala.” I think partly it adds another layer to the story that the documentary makers can use as a narrative - her relationship with her father. He named her after a woman who stood up for her rights and was killed, by the way. That adds another layer of interest. As in “Why is it interesting that he named her Malala?”
I read an interview with her recently where she said she wasn’t that keen on her name because it means ‘grief stricken’ in urdu. I don’t know if that has any bearing at all.
(sneak boast: Malala now goes to my old school, Edgbaston High in Birmingham, UK. Hey, it’s all I got!).
Pushto actually (and it means grief stricken or “bringer of grief”) and when she first started writing she used “Gul Makai”. Incidentally, many people at the time thought that Malala was her pen name and Gul Makai (after another Pakhtun folktale character) was her actual one.
The title obviously is meant to be a play on the many trials and tribulations she and her family have endured.
I’m a woman, and I instantly found this title inappropriate. Of all movies, why title a movie about an amazing young woman doing great things in a patriarchal society with a phrase giving her father credit for all of it, basically? First of all, did her mother have anything to do with the way she turned out? Secondly, how often are the accomplishments of great people summed up with phrases crediting their parents?
(YMMV on whether you consider Obama “great” or “accomplished”, especially in 1995. But I figured I’d throw it out there, and I’m sure it’s not the only example.)
NPR interviewed Malala this morning (or aired it at least). She basically grew up in the school her father taught at. She explained the motivation for the title very well. You might try to search for it on the NPR website, if you’re interested. It wasn’t a long segment.
I found the NPR story and noted that it says “she bristles at the suggestion that anyone but she chose her destiny,” which is exactly what the title “He Named Me Malala” implies, especially when you consider that the film is based on her memoir titled “I Am Malala.”
Have you ever actually read her life’s story, not the media hype? Her father was anti Taliban, stood up to them at great personal risk, and encouraged her to write a blog about Taliban in Swat Valley and had it sent to Government media cells. And he stayed there when everyone else of his social background did a runner to Islamabad at a time when the Taliban treated dissent by behweading you and hanging your body at an intersection. (From memory Malala and her mother and siblings did eventually actually go to Islamabad, but her Dad stayed)
Nobody in human history has ever achieved anything without support and help from, family, or friends, or patrons. That’s just the way it is. It’s not about being “patriarchal” or not counting her mother.
I’m not fond of the title, either. I get it, but I don’t like it. While it’s true that she wouldn’t have accomplished what she has without him, neither would she have accomplished what she has without herself, without being the rather startlingly amazing person she is. If I were his daughter, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, because I’d have quit school when things got tough.
I someone made a documentary about Ziauddin Yousafzai, I’d actually be really interested in watching that. I do think he’s an amazing man and father who himself broke the patriarchy (at least in his household) while being a beneficiary of it, which is a really fascinating story. And as his story, *that *documentary should be named something he is or has done under his agency. “He Named Her Malala” would be a *great *title for a biopic on Ziauddin, showing his story and how he raised such an awesome daughter.
But if this documentary is Malala’s story, I’d prefer a title that is something she is or has done. Something under her agency.
My initial “hrm…” was based on a feminist trigger…but on further reflection, simply as a part of storytelling, I still don’t like it.
And in regards to Obama’s titling his memoir “Dreams from My Father,” he chose that title for his story himself. Malala, however, (presumably) chose the title “I Am Malala” for hers.
(There are several, initially he was the one who was the media guy, until the Pak Military media managers decided that she was more likely to pull heartstrings).
As it is, its quite clearly meant to be a pun, as was I am Malala. It has a double meaning explained upthread. “Feminist triggers” or “Agency” are frankly irrelevant.
The title “He Named Me Malala” would be a story about her father as told by Malala. “He” is the subject, and thus the topic of the sentence. That’s what those words mean in English. And that happens to be the language chosen for the title.
I also do not see how it’s a pun. The title may have multiple meanings, but that’s not what a pun is. A pun involves using one word that sounds like another word.
I don’t like it. The negative implications are there whether they are intentional or not. I don’t care how involved he was–the story I’m interested in is about her, not her father. He can be a part of it, but the focus should be on her.
And this title says otherwise. Either it’s a bad title, or it’s for a documentary I don’t want to see.
I’m gonna go with the “poor choice for a title” crowd on this one, for the reasons mentioned by WhyNot and BigT. For a documentary about a girl who has suffered because she’s stood up against a patriarchal society to be titled in a way that suggests even parental patriarchal control of her life was not a good choice, IMO.
It also has somewhat different connotations as the title of a memoir of a son raised by a single mother and her parents. Echoes of loss and yearning for a paternal relationship he didn’t get. The Dreams are Barack’s; the title is still about him.