Post date: Oct 13, 2013 3:49:12 PM
Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai hopes to influence change at the highest levels of government in her native Pakistan as she continues her fight for girls' education.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (BROADCAST OCTOBER 13, 2013) (BBC) - It may be some time in the future but Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, hopes to influence change at the highest levels starting in her native Pakistan.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, broadcast on Sunday (October 13), Malala said she was driven by trying to make a difference where it mattered most.
"We want to help every child in every country that we can. We'll start from Pakistanand Afghanistan and Syria now, especially because they are suffering the most and they are on the top that need our help," Malala told Andrew Marr.
"And later on in my life I want to do politics and I want to become a leader and to bring a change in Pakistan. And I hope when I will be a politician I will bring schools, I will try to develop the system of electricity... I want to be a politician inPakistan because I don't want to be a politician in a country that is already developed. I want to be a politician in that country that needs developing."
Malala now lives in the United Kingdom and hopes to continue spreading her message back to her home country, who she said had supported her cause.
"My father says that education is neither eastern or western," she said. "Education is education, it's the right of everyone.
"The people of Pakistan have supported me and they don't think of me as western. I am the daughter of Pakistan and I'm proud that I'm a Pakistani.
"On the day when I was shot and the next day, people raised the banners of I am Malala. They did not say that I am Taliban. And they support me and they are encouraging me to move forward and continue my campaign for girls' education."
Malala hoped the courage she showed to speak up for girls education would inspire others.
"I spoke for education and it means that I am speaking against the Taliban because speaking for education means you are speaking against the Taliban because they are against education.
"This time I am speaking for my life because education is my life, no one can deny and I spoke for that. I was not waiting for someone else, neither was I asking for the government. Neither was I asking someone else, I said I will do it."