MALALA! Saturn Returns, Sports & Her Song of the Summer

Speaker 1 This is an Etsy holiday ad, but you won't hear any sleigh bells or classic carols. Instead, you'll hear something original: the sound of an Etsy holiday, which sounds like this.

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Speaker 3 One thing that truly fascinates me is how how you love each other more and more day by day. I thought that wasn't true because that's what we are told.

Speaker 3 But if you are meant for each other, you are going to love each other even more than you used to. And nearly four years, and we, Asra, and I are more in love than before.
I love it.

Speaker 3 I need to stop, okay?

Speaker 1 Awesome. You're in love, Malala.
We get it. Some of us over here.

Speaker 1 Welcome to House of Mar, A Wave Original. We have a few house rules.
Girls are magic. Reading is hot.
And so are you. And make sure to check out our YouTube because I actually put on naked today.

Speaker 1 So if you want to see that, because I'm glowing, go subscribe to our YouTube. That was a gift for all of you.
Yeah. You know,

Speaker 1 she got on. And I didn't want to do that thing where somebody like has, you know, put a little bit of effort in how they look and you're like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 Wow. But like, you look phenomenal.
Sorry.

Speaker 2 You look so good.

Speaker 1 Is there foundation? What's your

Speaker 1 little foundation on? I think I knew

Speaker 1 it's more because I knew we would be on camera and you can do a little bit more if you're on camera, you know? So I have, I did a little contour.

Speaker 1 Oh, did I blend that? It's okay.

Speaker 1 I did a little contouring and I did a little of this and that. And I did some glowiness.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 1 The lips look into

Speaker 1 my lips. Is that like a plumping lip? Or that's just my lips?

Speaker 2 No, that's just my lips. Sorry, Lila.
That's just my lips.

Speaker 1 Me too.

Speaker 1 In case you did not know, our darling sister Alona is a world-class award-winning athlete. She is training hours every single day, and she is flying across the world to play in the Rugby World Cup.

Speaker 1 So for the next several weeks, we will be taking a break from our regular format to give our sister the room she needs to focus on rugby.

Speaker 1 So there will not be a new episode next week, but wait for the rest of the summer. Dre and I are going to take you along with us to watch Alona at the World Cup.

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Speaker 1 Coming up on today's episode of House of Marr, we're talking Saturn Returns, Love Languages, and Malala's upcoming book. I am the eldest daughter, Olivia.
I'm the baby, Adriana. Nowhere near 30.

Speaker 1 Um, that's disrespectful, but okay. I'm the middle sister, sister Alona Mar, and when this episode comes out, it will be my birthday.
Yay!

Speaker 2 Yes!

Speaker 3 Confetti, confetti, confetti.

Speaker 1 29? 29?

Speaker 2 29. 29?

Speaker 1 29? 29.

Speaker 1 How are you feeling? I feel good. I actually almost just want to be 30 at this point.
I've heard 30s are a great time.

Speaker 1 You really know yourself. So I'm excited for a 30, but one last year in my 20s to have some fun.

Speaker 1 Who knows what 29 will will bring? 28 has been kookie kaka.

Speaker 1 28, I turned 28 last year at the closing ceremonies.

Speaker 1 And then what I've done since then, danced with the stars, played in England, Sports Illustrated, won an Espy, won an Esby, won a Cleo Award, went to Cannes. So I've done a lot with 28.

Speaker 1 28 was a good number, a good age. So I'm excited to see what 29 brings.
One last year to live it up, I guess.

Speaker 1 But when I do my birthday, when it is my birthday, when this comes out, we will be, it'll be a day of training. It'll be our hardest day of training.

Speaker 1 And I was texting my team, like, hey, guys, like,

Speaker 1 do you have a good restaurant we could go to when we're in England? And they said there's nothing around.

Speaker 2 So you texted like your

Speaker 1 British teammates from when you were playing over there.

Speaker 1 And a lot of my teammates on this team live there as well in the town we're going to. So I was like, hey, guys, is there like a nice restaurant?

Speaker 1 Like, I wanted to take everyone out to dinner or something like that. Yeah.
But there's, turns out there's nothing really around.

Speaker 1 And so you'll make the fun. Yeah.
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 I don't think so.

Speaker 1 Just go split some G's at a local pub. That's what 29 is all about.
So about that, I'm in a World Cup, so we don't drink often.

Speaker 3 Fair, right?

Speaker 1 So fair. And that's on me.

Speaker 2 And that's when you are without forgetting about this.

Speaker 1 We'll have to do it for her.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 We'll split a G for you, Alona. For your.
We'll split a G. We'll split an extra G for you.

Speaker 1 So this also, 28 is a year of great change because it's talked about as being your saturn return do you know much about this do you believe in this what is your thoughts about

Speaker 1 i only know what is on the ariana grande album that intro yeah long story short your saturn return means that when you are born saturn is somewhere in the sky i also got to say i'm not an astrology girly

Speaker 1 i don't really know but i do love it all that bit of woo-woo saturn is somewhere when you're born and it takes it starts its return back to that place in at like 27 years so it's completed its return come like 28 29.

Speaker 1 so everyone says that it's a time of great like change or realization or you really settle into who you are which i feel like you've had a fabulous saturn return everything we just listed off yeah i've saturn's she's due yeah

Speaker 1 love that she's come back it's been great uh missed you missed you saturn did you olivia be so for real did you know that or did you just are you listening off the the Ariana Grande song? Be so.

Speaker 1 I knew that. I knew that.
Okay, fine.

Speaker 1 My Saturn,

Speaker 1 she didn't just return.

Speaker 2 She was gone.

Speaker 1 She like, she

Speaker 2 did my life.

Speaker 1 I remember that. She made an entrance.
She gave it the old, like, that's show business, the old Razzle Dazzle.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I went through a large breakup for my Saturn return. But I mean, there's nothing more fitting than that.
And I think I am now even more so the woman I'm supposed to be.

Speaker 1 And that was a time of great change, great and powerful change. And it made me the woman that I am.
But yeah, I would say I had a,

Speaker 1 can you say a successful Saturn return? It doesn't feel successful, but it was in the for like the ultimate end goal of who I am. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I'd say. Yeah, you grew.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 You know, your next Saturn Return is in your 50s, is it?

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 that's so true.

Speaker 1 I've never thought about that. You get another one.
It's kind of like quarter life crisis, midlife crisis. Oh my God.

Speaker 1 That's Saturn, huh? She's working. What's Mercury in retrograde?

Speaker 1 Gatorade in the microwave. That's

Speaker 1 when

Speaker 1 Mercury

Speaker 1 has decided to shake things up. I don't know.
Dre, what's Mercury in retrograde?

Speaker 1 I could not tell you either, but it is, people always say, like, oh, Mercury is in retrograde when like something you're like,

Speaker 1 like a lot of chaos is happening. Apparently, it's a very unsettled time.
This just in.

Speaker 1 Roughly three to four times a year, the planet Mercury appears to move backwards in its orbit as seen from Earth. And so chaos ensues.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 1 When's that happening?

Speaker 1 Probably right now.

Speaker 2 Probably World Cup.

Speaker 1 Probably whenever I'm ovulating. Because I tell you what, the past couple months have been felt like going to war.
I am just like, oh.

Speaker 1 Interesting. Everyone always talks about that.
And I don't, I never know what that means.

Speaker 1 To me, I'm thinking about the substance mercury.

Speaker 1 I don't think of the planet. And I'm like, what are you talking about, Mercury? Like, the ones in thermometers? Is that what's in thermometers?

Speaker 1 The old-fashioned ones? The old-fashioned thermometers have mercury. They no longer sell those because mercury is incredibly toxic to humans and putting them in your mouth.

Speaker 1 That being said, in our household, we still have a mercury thermometer. I trust those.
I trust it.

Speaker 1 I trust Mercury.

Speaker 1 Mom always tells a story of like growing up being at like uh her grandmother's antique store someone's antique store and there's just a bowl of mercury and she would just play with it because like back then you didn't know how bad mercury was so our mom was just like elbow deep in mercury as i bet it was fun to play with

Speaker 2 so fun yeah

Speaker 1 I accidentally ruptured one of those thermometers in the sink when I was little because I was like, oh, let me put it under hot water and watch the watch it like go up and it exploded.

Speaker 1 That wasn't fun. Mom and and dad were a bit stressed.
I got stressed. That might be why she's the way she is, Adriana.
Explains a lot. Explains a lot.

Speaker 1 And now we can't even replace that thermometer because they don't sell this anymore. Thanks.
That probably would have been worth some money now. Yeah.
Thanks, Olivia.

Speaker 1 Guys, what do you think it did to me? Am I superhero?

Speaker 1 It's probably why your ovulation cycles are crazy.

Speaker 1 Mercury's throat flowing through you. That was written in the stars.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 Well, Lo, we wish you the happiest of birthdays in your 29th year, and we cannot wait to see what you do.

Speaker 2 29!

Speaker 1 Dre, it's coming for you. Actually, now that Alona's 29, I'm like, 26 is even younger.

Speaker 1 I got ID'd twice at the same bar the other day. And I get mistaken for both of their twins.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 D.C. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I had people being like, I love curl dinner. You're like, me too, bitch.
What does that have to do with me?

Speaker 2 Thank you. Wrong one.

Speaker 1 Hey, not me. I'll take it, though.
I'll take it a run. Time to touch some grass.
This is when we like to slow things down and

Speaker 1 take a chill, pill. Look around.
See what's actually going on. Let's analyze things.
So in news of women's empowerment, there's a new app on the dating scene called T.

Speaker 1 It's a women-only app that allows users to anonymously post reviews, stories, and advice about men they've dated or even just met.

Speaker 1 This is kind of similar to like the Facebook groups of Are We Dating the Same Guy?

Speaker 1 Which Olivia, I know that you've been a part of. Do you think that this app is needed? I think so.
I mean, I think it's definitely caused a bit of a stir.

Speaker 1 Men don't like it, but to that I say, if you're a good dude, you literally have nothing to worry about. So if you're nervous and scared about this app, is that a red flag? I don't know.

Speaker 1 I think it's another way for women to protect one another.

Speaker 1 It's that thing that you hear that's like gossip was made to be seem evil by men and the church church because it was how women would communicate and help one another. It gave power to women, right?

Speaker 1 And so instead, men tried to take that away from them and saying gossip is evil, gossip is ungodly, it's not good when actually it's a very healthy, natural part of communication and helping your community.

Speaker 1 And I think that an app like this is exactly that. As we mentioned earlier, I went through a breakup and

Speaker 1 After that, I went and joined one of those Are We Dating the Same Guys? I was nowhere near wanting to date, but I am nosy.

Speaker 1 It's always funny when I do see a post where somebody's like, started to talk to this guy. Any red flags?

Speaker 1 And it is the scariest human being I've ever seen in my life. Spooky.
Like they snuck onto earth. Scary.
You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. So I think it's a great resource.

Speaker 1 I don't know exactly how to feel about this app and things because

Speaker 1 on one hand, I do absolutely understand like

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 1 there's a high female immortality rate from men and like you need to protect yourself, and this is such a great step to do so. But I also think about like the men's privacy

Speaker 1 and like what we've kind of talked about before in this of like, what if you flipped it? Like, what if it was like guys being like, any red flags from this girl?

Speaker 1 Like, we would hate having all of our information out there, of like, especially like be like,

Speaker 1 like, it would be like my picture, Adriana, and be like, where I live.

Speaker 2 Ah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I love the sentiment, but I worry about the execution. I also think,

Speaker 1 you know, men are, there's a lot of not good men for sure. I know some kukikaka women.
I do.

Speaker 1 I know some women that I wouldn't, I don't know if I'd want my guy friends to be dating. So I think that,

Speaker 1 you know, it is interesting. There's, it's almost okay for just the women to say all this about the men.

Speaker 1 But I mean, if we created up, we would also, if we created Zap T, would then, if a male were to create it, would there be an uproar about it?

Speaker 1 You know, would people be so mad that he's created an app like this? One thing that recently happened is that a bunch of the new users on Tees, all their information got leaked.

Speaker 1 So, like, what was supposed to be such a safe place for women is now putting them in more danger. Can women just exist?

Speaker 3 No.

Speaker 1 But apparently, a man did create the T app because this man was catfished. And why would a man be there?

Speaker 2 True.

Speaker 1 For an app made for women. I don't know how to feel about that.
That heat, that a man made the app.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because it's like, it's how I feel about male gynecologists.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry. Why would a man be there? Without a male gynecologist, Audrey, we would never have the Broadway play Waitress.
And most of the plot makes me uncomfortable. What is the plot of Waitress?

Speaker 1 Oh, you don't know the plot of Waitress. You've never seen Waitress? No, I just like the songs.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, don't spoil it for her. Nobody in the comments spoil it for her.
She's not going to watch it. Actually, you might watch it on a plane.
The pro shot.

Speaker 1 Is it? With Sarah Morales. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Or we'll watch it at home. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I hope you're intrigued now. What's the slight premise of it? So she obviously gets impregnated by her shitty husband.
Obviously. Obviously.
Well, you've listened to She's to Be Mine.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I even know what she's saying in in that. I just like it.

Speaker 2 She's having

Speaker 1 a live vibe that's inside me.

Speaker 1 Pregnant grows stronger each day.

Speaker 1 Pregnant. Until it finally reminds me to fight just a little to take that guy.

Speaker 2 I hear it now.

Speaker 1 I hear it now. I just gave myself chills.

Speaker 1 I'm putting on the pro shot after this.

Speaker 1 So she is a pregnant waitress who is in a relationship or married to a dirtbag. Mean, is he abusive? I can't remember, probably.

Speaker 1 She goes to the gynecologist, male, brings him a pie, and falls in love with him.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'll watch this one because I'm not convicted on that plot line. That seems a little crazy.
The plot, maybe it's not for me, but the songs.

Speaker 2 Oh my god. What? Neither of the songs are good.

Speaker 1 The song, It's a Very Bad Idea, Me and You.

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I'll read those two. It's so fun, though.
Interesting. But now you'll really understand the music.
As a nurse alone, you're gonna fucking hate that plot. It's the same thing as like athletic books.

Speaker 1 You're gonna be like, that's not right.

Speaker 2 Yeah, probably.

Speaker 1 Already, he's kind of freaking me out. But he's like cute, tall, and nerdy, so it's all good.
Is that against HIPAA?

Speaker 2 Probably. I don't know.
Don't feel right.

Speaker 1 Don't feel right. Like, you should get your license taken away at that point.
What we are trying to say here is a space that was created for women to

Speaker 1 protect one another and be safe, getting hacked by these men who feel threatened by this, they need to touch some grass. If you didn't already know, I'm training for the Rugby World Cup.

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Speaker 1 And we are now gonna kick things over to you alona for a very exciting interview with our incredible special guest and friend malala yousofzai yay alona do you remember the uh first moment you first followed each other i remember that she followed me and i was like what the heck

Speaker 1 and then i followed her back and she uh you know is a big fan of women's sports and so she came to a game when I was in England, came to our Harlequins game and it was so cool to meet her in person.

Speaker 1 So I'm excited to chat with her and just really just girls being girls. You know what I'm saying? Girls being girls.
Let's get into it. It is an honor to have you.

Speaker 1 The last time I saw you was in England. You came to one of my matches.
Tell me, what did you think about rugby?

Speaker 3 Elona, I think you have made rugby more fun. It was a Valentine's Day.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 3 Astra and I, my husband, we were thinking about what to do. And usually, you know, we plan a dinner and we said, that is just boring.
We have done done that so many times.

Speaker 3 So that's why we said, oh, there's Bristol Bears. Ilona will be there.
We must watch her rugby game. And it was a perfect day.
Could not have imagined it better.

Speaker 1 Deeply romantic day for you and your husband, watching some women tackle each other on a cold England night. There's nothing better, really.

Speaker 3 100%. It was freezing cold.
I could

Speaker 3 not stand in those heels on the grass for that long, but it was truly worth it because that was when we met for the first time. And I was so grateful like we could chat.
But

Speaker 3 for me, the memory from the day was actually watching girls and especially younger women. They're waiting for you to just wave at you and take a photo with you.

Speaker 3 And I just saw the power of women's sports, how young girls are gaining confidence and self-esteem when they watch women's sports.

Speaker 1 And you definitely seem to be a big fan of that. I mean,

Speaker 1 you used to play cricket and a little badminton,

Speaker 1 and now you're even starting your own kind of women's sports fun recess. If you can tell me a little bit about that, that just sounds so cool.

Speaker 1 And for someone like you who sees that, for women athletes, that, oh, there's something here. There's something powerful.

Speaker 3 Yes, so my story with sports is a long one, and it's an interesting one because growing up, I was a big fan of sports and playing on the street with friends.

Speaker 3 But as we got older, I realized that life for women and girls in sports is very different.

Speaker 3 One example, in our school, on a sports day, the boys would go to the local cricket ground while girls had to stay back in the school. And it wasn't that

Speaker 3 playground said boys only, but that was the understanding, that was the perception that girls are supposed to stay inside.

Speaker 3 And sports was only meant for boys.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I had this mission of fighting for girls' education.

Speaker 3 But as much as I believed in women being able to do anything, I think all of us sometimes give up to

Speaker 3 the perceptions we are told to hold. And sports was one of those things.
I thought that you have to be naturally born with it. And

Speaker 3 because boys get a lot more opportunities to play, so we sort of assume that they're good at it.

Speaker 3 My perception changed when I actually started playing sports again. It was,

Speaker 3 you know, after I got married to Aster, he comes from the sports world and he has worked in cricket. He took me to different sports from pickleball to cricket to

Speaker 3 golf. And I thought I could never do it.
I thought I could never hit a ball. I could never kick a ball.

Speaker 3 And as soon as I started taking some lessons and practicing, i realized that anyone can do it because i was a person who used to love sitting i could sit forever i was not a person who could move around or walk i even hated walking i mean forget about running and kicking a ball or any of that so to see myself transform

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 really

Speaker 3 understand that sports is is for everybody. At the same time, I also realized how sports can help girls gain confidence and self-esteem.
It can be so important in their personal growth.

Speaker 3 Even if they don't want to be in sports as a career, it can help them no matter where they work and where they are in their life, at what stage, age they are.

Speaker 3 You can pick up sports anytime. So that's what drew me to sports.
And that's why my husband and I came together to do something where we can be more helpful for women's sports.

Speaker 1 I so agree.

Speaker 1 And I think it's something that, you know, you know, I always preach is like sport taught me for somebody who had a body who didn't understand why I didn't look like my classmates and whatnot.

Speaker 1 It gave me a way to feel like capable and that my body was just something more than just to be looked at.

Speaker 1 And I don't, I preach like play rugby because I think rugby is one of those sports like you don't have to, you, you. don't have to have played any sports or be athletic at all.

Speaker 1 Come out to a rugby pitch. There's a community for you.
But my big thing is like, try any sport. Try

Speaker 1 golf.

Speaker 1 Get out there and and try you know cricket whatever it is pickleball do something that kind of moves and shows oh man look at me i i can hit this ball or something it just to me can do so much and so i love that you've seen the value in that i um i heard that you also tried out a little rowing back at oxford

Speaker 3 that's hard rowing is hard extremely hard and you know it's like you cannot stand in that boat right it's there there's just a huge protocol to how you get in in and

Speaker 3 and then the first question I was asked was can you swim and that's when I realized hmm I need to I need to start with that before I get into rowing so right

Speaker 3 I still need to focus on that and eventually who knows I might get into rowing but for me it was just this new experience that I was going to try everything in college at school I was a very shy person I had become a shy person, to be honest, because I thought I was a latecomer.

Speaker 3 People now know me for my activism. And I am going to these serious events and conferences.

Speaker 3 I get to talk to presidents and prime ministers, but still I don't know how to have a conversation with another 14 or 15 year old about just a normal day in school.

Speaker 3 So when I went to university, I told myself that everybody's new. Don't be shy.
Try anything and everything, including rowing.

Speaker 3 And I think I regretted that in the end, but I think it was worth it because I met new people and I saw myself in places and in which I could never imagine myself.

Speaker 3 I was like literally on the river and I knew that I could drown any minute, but I survived.

Speaker 3 So it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 We have a little similar in that way.

Speaker 1 So I've just kind of started reading your book. First off, I want to let you know, I don't read books to learn.
So I was like, I'm going to read some of Malala's. I was hooked.

Speaker 1 Malala, you got some good stuff. And your book is coming out in October.
But one thing that you and I are similar is that I also, when I went to college, I didn't have a lot of friends in high school.

Speaker 1 I, to me, my friends were whoever I was on a sports team with. And that's kind of where I got my respect.

Speaker 1 I was respected in high school for being such a good athlete, but I never had like strong friends. And I was always jonesing for that.
Like, I always wanted to find a friend.

Speaker 1 And so when I went to college, it was again, like, okay, I can kind of be whoever I want to be. And I'm going to try and start fresh.
And so friends have always been something I've

Speaker 1 jones for. Like, I just, it wasn't, and it wasn't until later that I found my, you know, best friend, Nicole, till after college.

Speaker 1 But I think the value of female friendships, and if you can speak on it, it's just, it's kind of shaped me into who I am as well.

Speaker 3 I had only one friend at school, and I was hoping that maybe I'll get true friends at college.

Speaker 3 And I am so grateful to say right now that I have so many friends, so many friends. And in college, I knew that I had to change.
I had to approach people. I had to be the first one to say hi.

Speaker 3 And I'm so grateful for that. I think it, you do feel a bit weird.

Speaker 3 And I thought, you know, I'm a bit creepy if I'm approaching everybody, but it was truly worth it because I found the most amazing people.

Speaker 3 from my subject group, from my year group, from my college, from other colleges, from different parts of the world. And they are just incredible people.
We can talk about anything.

Speaker 3 We can talk about a silly topic. We can talk about a serious topic.
We can talk about world politics. We can talk about how we want to use our platform, our role to help change the world.

Speaker 3 And then sometimes we just talk about astrology and what do we think about this boy and what do we think about this profile on the dating app? And I am, I become their advisor.

Speaker 3 And it could be a conversation about anything and everything.

Speaker 3 But they helped me grow. They helped me

Speaker 3 be that old self of mine, which I was missing in Pakistan. I was a very chatty person.
I had a lot of friends and I didn't know if I could ever be that old self of mine.

Speaker 3 I can now say that I feel that I was in a better place because I met so many incredible, smart, funny people who are still with me. They're on this journey with me.
And

Speaker 3 I can reach out to them anytime about anything. And we can talk for hours and hours.

Speaker 1 That's it, though.

Speaker 1 About finding friends now, it truly, it's a work though. It's work to get friends because I think we kind of sometimes can be so flimsy with it.
We're like, oh, we should get coffee sometime.

Speaker 1 Yeah, let's get coffee sometime, but then we don't set a date. Like, when I want to be friends with someone, I have to be like, okay, we're going to get coffee at this date at this time.

Speaker 1 I'll see you there. Because I don't know if it's with social media or with you can meet so many people.
It can be hard to really connect on that deeper level and it takes work

Speaker 3 like you putting the work in for that I think nothing is harder than bringing your friends together for breakfast coffee lunch anything you want to plan I have arranged many events and gone to many countries around the world.

Speaker 3 We can put a trip together for to Tanzania or Nigeria in a few weeks, but I cannot bring all of my friends together.

Speaker 3 And I also sometimes I tell them that, like, let's be there at 1 p.m., even though I have booked a place for 1.30 and they still manage to show up late. And I'm still there before everybody.

Speaker 3 It still happens.

Speaker 2 And I'm like,

Speaker 3 how can you be an hour late? I try every tactic and it does not work. But, you know.

Speaker 1 You got to love them.

Speaker 2 I love my friends. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What I loved is when you came to the game, I think everyone was like, oh my gosh, Malala's here. Malala's here.
And they put this idea of who you are in their heads.

Speaker 1 And then you were there just like, just to watch rugby and hang out with the girls. My, my sisters were there.
My agent was there and my agent's friends.

Speaker 1 And you just wanted to hang with the girls and watch some rugby. I think that this kind of

Speaker 1 preconceived notion of who you are follows you everywhere. Guys, Malala is just a girl.
She wants to chill. She wants to hang.
She just wants to chat as a girl would.

Speaker 1 And I feel like sometimes I, you know, this idea of like being a role model, I guess, follows you everywhere as well with whatever you do and say.

Speaker 3 Yes, it has been

Speaker 3 there as part of my life for many, many years. Sometimes even I forget that I am

Speaker 3 still a young woman, I'm still a girl, or you sort of forget that you are in your twenties.

Speaker 3 But it's really my time with my friends that remind me of that.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I also,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 and it took me a while to figure this out, but now I feel

Speaker 3 I put less pressure on myself to

Speaker 3 sort of feel less guilty for trying to

Speaker 3 find myself and try to like

Speaker 3 try to grow and try to make mistakes and try not to know all the answers. And I think this is like, this is part of our life somehow.

Speaker 3 when you become a public figure at a young age, people expect you to have figured it all out, to know all the answers and then you feel the pressure that you should know it and if you don't then somehow you are not doing your job and you feel like this you know imposter syndrome so uh i it took me a while to overcome that uh and uh and and i and i knew like you know there's just no other way i have to be myself i have to be myself and i will learn along the way one thing i don't think you're running the Malala Fun Instagram, but we've been loving the way that they comment on girls' posts.

Speaker 1 Girls will do something funny, like say, I'm skipping school today, and Malala Fund will comment, like, boo. We just love that.
That's that's how you connect with people, though, just with humor.

Speaker 1 And even like, it's something so funny and trivial, but just adding something lighthearted to it, I think, also still gets your message out there.

Speaker 3 Yeah, no, I have asked my staff at Malala Fund, I said, if you see a girl not doing her homework, you better call her out. No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3 I think it's been really fascinating for me to see how I have a following among among parents, teachers, among

Speaker 3 women who are in their 30s, who are

Speaker 3 at that point in their life where they're deciding or starting their career. And then I also have a following among very little girls, school girls and school students.

Speaker 3 And it's just fascinating for me when I see comments from kids or even when I meet kids who have like no idea that I'm like real I'm alive they thought

Speaker 3 like happened like 50 years ago or something and that's why the school teacher asked them to do a project on on my story so

Speaker 3 so yeah you know I've been making these TikTok and I've been making these Instagram reels to sort of raise awareness that you know I'm I'm alive and

Speaker 2 yeah

Speaker 1 that that one was really funny making sure what was it Gen Z knows I'm still live in the comments people are like wait a second hilarious What?

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's a just great way to just also like continue to put that message out there because social media can be so powerful.
And that's where everyone's on. That's how I've built my brand.

Speaker 1 Cause I'm like, okay, everyone I want to target, the young girls who I want to get into to get into rugby are scrolling their phones. Just put a video out there.
And also the messages like never stop.

Speaker 1 You for me, it's a lot about body positivity and stuff like that. And I'll post one,

Speaker 1 but it can never be just like, all right, it solved. We did it.
I have to continuously post because it's just a continuous flood of information.

Speaker 1 One post for me about, you know, your body's capable, your body's strong, it's beautiful. And then the next post is, it's be smaller, be skinnier, whatever it is.
So it's like a never-ending thing.

Speaker 1 And for the rest of your life as well, it's going to be kind of a never-ending

Speaker 1 getting your message out there.

Speaker 3 Social media is a very powerful platform, and I love how you are using it to raise awareness and promote body positivity. I love the way you do your work.
And,

Speaker 3 you know, when I follow your account and come across your content, my dream is to have the same biceps and triceps as you. So

Speaker 2 that I

Speaker 1 get back in that rowing boat and you will.

Speaker 2 You start rowing again and you will, Malala. Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 And I want to lift heavier weights. And yeah, we'll get there.
We'll get there.

Speaker 3 And I think it's important for us to promote self-confidence among girls because social media can be very dangerous at the same time, the way it puts pressure on young people. So

Speaker 3 it's a tool and it's up to us how we use it.

Speaker 3 And I think we have the power, we have the capacity, a lot of us have the following and we need to ensure that we are promoting the right message among young people so that they realize that no matter where they come from or how they look and how tall or short they are or like it's just like all of these things do not matter, it's all about what they decide to do for themselves to make a difference, and

Speaker 3 that's what matters in the end.

Speaker 1 Now, from what I've heard, you met your husband through sport. Sport really brings us together.
I personally am looking for that as well.

Speaker 1 Lolla, if you can find me a husband through sport, it's been tough.

Speaker 1 How did that happen? Please don't leave out any details. I need to take notes and figure it out for myself.

Speaker 1 He still plays cricket.

Speaker 3 Okay, here's the mystery part. So, my husband comes from sports.

Speaker 2 He

Speaker 3 is actually

Speaker 3 not really

Speaker 3 a sports person because I was under the assumption that, oh, he works at cricket, so maybe he can play cricket. To this day, it's been seven years.

Speaker 3 I have not seen him play cricket because he just will not. He's under so much pressure.
And when I ask him, he says,

Speaker 3 you know, now we're married, there's no point. Like, Like, he says,

Speaker 3 yeah.

Speaker 3 So anyway,

Speaker 3 we will eventually find out if he can actually play cricket well or not.

Speaker 3 All I can say is that, you know, when you meet the right person, you know. And it's for me, it was respect, it was love, it was kindness.
And I found all of that in Asar.

Speaker 3 But he's also funny and entertaining and he looks after me. So I said, wow, like he is the right person.

Speaker 3 Um, and we're both friends, like, we still sort of joke about it that you know, like, oh, we're married, but you know, we're actually friends.

Speaker 1 And I love love languages, I love knowing what people's love languages are. What's your love language? Do you do you have one or do you have many?

Speaker 3 So, my love language is acts of service. I think

Speaker 3 I am not a person who so much believes in in words of affirmation. I appreciate them when I receive them.
But for me, it's the acts that speak louder.

Speaker 3 And I think then for my husband, it's anything. He can be happy with anything, whatever acts, words, affection, whatever you give him.
But what is yours? What is

Speaker 1 it? Mine?

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 we need the boys to know.

Speaker 3 We need them to know. So what is your love language?

Speaker 2 Okay, good.

Speaker 3 Listen carefully.

Speaker 1 Everyone, listen up please everyone uh be quiet this is gonna be cliff uh i think my love language is quality time

Speaker 1 i just love spending time together and that's how my family kind of does it as well just us my sisters and i on the back porch just together uh my friend and i even if it's like just scrolling on your phone together i love that yeah i'm definitely not like an acts of service person I my mom is.

Speaker 1 My mom wants to cook for everyone. She wants to do the little things for people.

Speaker 1 I also love, I kind of words of affirmation at times.

Speaker 1 I think that I don't know if it's still the young girl growing, you know, young girl inside of me who feels sometimes insecure at moments, who wants just a little bit of, you know, all of that.

Speaker 1 It's kind of changing, I think, though, as I get older as well.

Speaker 1 But I don't know. I think it's different ways with different people.

Speaker 1 And it's so fun to also learn what somebody else's is because if his is acts of service, well, all right, I got to start clocking in I got to start doing what maybe isn't natural for me but I also I haven't really been in a relationship before to even kind of learn those things and that's something that you know I'm as you found with Asters like learning so much from them and how much it changes over the years it's something I haven't experienced yet and I really want to I want to like

Speaker 1 get deeper and learn somebody and I mean I don't know if you've it maybe my fame but I haven't really been on many dates in this past year.

Speaker 1 So I think once I, once I take a little break, I'm going to see if I can really pull some in. I'm going to head to some cricket games,

Speaker 1 see if you two can help me out, and we'll go from there.

Speaker 3 Yes, for sure.

Speaker 3 And one thing I have noticed is that when two people are considering partnership or living together, they sometimes ask each other questions or trying to judge each other as if they are the husband or as if they are the wife or the spouse.

Speaker 3 And I personally felt that I was trying to get all of those answers from Asar that

Speaker 3 what would you be like in the husband role? How would you behave? How would you act? What roles and responsibilities are you expecting from me in the house?

Speaker 3 Some of the questions sounded really silly, but I felt I had to ask them because of my upbringing and how I saw how women were losing more when they were deciding to get married.

Speaker 3 And for me, it was always about a compromise. I had seen stories of child marriage and how girls just

Speaker 3 were losing so much from their education and work and

Speaker 3 other things. So I was concerned for the right reasons.
And I felt weird asking him all the questions, but I think it was worth it.

Speaker 3 But one thing which I realized in the process was that we expect all of these answers from each other, but we have never been exposed to that role.

Speaker 3 If he asked me a question about how I would be as a wife, my honest answer would be, I don't know, because I have never been a wife. And

Speaker 3 that changed my perspective because then I was more focused on thinking of him as a friend. Do I have a quality time with him? Do I enjoy my time with him? How do we feel when we talk?

Speaker 3 How do we feel when we don't talk and are just on our phones? Or

Speaker 3 do we like planning new things? I would have never tried this many sports in my life. It was him because of his company.
I could enjoy pickleball. I could go to a cricket game.

Speaker 3 I could play golf, I could do all of these things. And he also got exposed to my work as well, and he was enjoying it as well.

Speaker 3 And the more quality time you guys have, the more you enjoy each other's company, you know that you can be together for the rest of your,

Speaker 3 you know that you can be together for the rest of your lives.

Speaker 3 And you also realize that you are learning along the way. So when we got married, I still felt weird.
I said, like, what does it mean? Are things going to change the next day?

Speaker 3 And they don't, because you are still the same people.

Speaker 3 And one thing that truly fascinates me is how you love each other more and more day by day. I thought that wasn't true because that's what we are told.

Speaker 3 But if you are meant for each other, you are going to love each other even more than you used to. And nearly four years, and we, Asra, and I are more in love than before.

Speaker 2 I love it.

Speaker 3 I need to stop.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 Awesome. You're in love, Malala.
We get it. Some of us over here.

Speaker 1 You know what? I'm going to.

Speaker 3 I don't want to take Esther Perel's roles, right? Like,

Speaker 3 I don't want to be the.

Speaker 2 Anyway, anyway, Hanzo.

Speaker 1 I bet Oscar is really good at cricket. I bet he's secretly amazing at it and he just wants to be chilly.

Speaker 3 He's like, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 I bet he's really good at it.

Speaker 3 I agree. I think it's been seven years since he's been hiding this talent.
And I'm sure he's taking lessons every day. So

Speaker 3 we should see it.

Speaker 1 He's secretly just been going to the courts. No, no, no, I'm just going on a walk.
He's been just, you know, bowling all day long.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 Yes.

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Malala, tell me about some things in pop culture. Are you a big music girl?

Speaker 1 Ajana just loves listening to all music. Who are you listening to now? Anything that gets you hyped up to do a speech?

Speaker 1 Well, I do, you know, I do rugby. I like to listen to Shania Twain Man, I feel like a woman.
What gets you ready to go?

Speaker 3 I love listening to any of the latest songs. I follow these big artists from Taylor Swift to Selena Gomez,

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 I'm like waiting for everybody's next album. I mean, Rihanna and Beyonce.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I, and, you know, I like different music at different times.

Speaker 3 If I'm in the gym and I decide to run for one hour, then I do like songs that give me all of that energy to sort of, you know, like who run the world girls kind of songs so that I keep running.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 but I'm also a big fan of Kawali music

Speaker 3 that is a huge part of the

Speaker 3 of the history and culture of India and Pakistan like the whole subcontinent there's so much about connecting with yourself and connecting with God so I love Kawali music Sufi music And

Speaker 3 yeah, and then I'm like, I'm listening to music in different languages in Hindi, in Urdu, in Pashto, in English. And I think that's the beauty of music.

Speaker 3 Like it can be from any culture, any country, in any language. And it can

Speaker 3 help you feel your emotions. And it can help you connect to the story.
It can help you connect to another person.

Speaker 3 So I really enjoy music.

Speaker 1 My sister Arjan is always one who just like gets us in on all the coolest artists. And I also am the same.
I pretty much listen to what everybody else is listening to.

Speaker 1 I'm not cool like that. If everybody else likes it, if it's on today's top hits, I'll be listening to it.
If it's just, it's clear that it's great songs. You are on TikTok.

Speaker 1 Are you loving a weird trend right now?

Speaker 3 I love trends like you look happier. To be honest, you know, I think everybody's TikTok algorithm is different.

Speaker 3 So when I open it, I just get cooking videos how to make, you know, a cake or like this pastry pastry and like this sort of protein high something something like there's a protein high version of everything and I can't cook and somehow I get those videos on my algorithm and I and I love watching them and I know I could never I could never ever cook any of that

Speaker 1 a trend of yours that I liked was um

Speaker 1 Malal is going to show you her pen collection and you better be cool about it.

Speaker 1 You had a lot of pens there.

Speaker 1 Big pen girl.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 3 I just showed you guys a few because

Speaker 3 I did not want to be accused of, you know, imagine

Speaker 3 all hotels, anything you can think of, suddenly come out and they're like,

Speaker 3 we know who it was. So that's why I said I'll share a few.

Speaker 3 I love collecting pens and hotel keys, the card keys.

Speaker 3 I don't know. I have like these strange things, collections with me.
They sort of like remind me of

Speaker 3 all the places I have been to. And to be honest, like a pen collection works really well for that.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 I just love pens. I like trying a new pen.

Speaker 1 Do you journal? Like, I bullet journals, and my sisters and I bullet journal.

Speaker 1 So we'll get like a even a piece of paper or something from somewhere and we put it in our journals and you can kind of remember. It's kind of the same thing, I guess.

Speaker 3 So do you guys share the journal? Like, can your sisters read your journal?

Speaker 1 No, no, no. Secret journals.
No, I talk.

Speaker 2 I talk about them.

Speaker 1 We each have our own. And so like, but when we're together, we all find like a, oh, that's a nice sticker.
And then we all get the same sticker and pretty much put it in.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 3 Yes, I do journal. I

Speaker 3 have actual like diaries, journals, and I also use notes. I love notes because it's a lot easier.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I just sometimes like I'm journaling every day and then sometimes I take a month off because I have been so busy and I get no time to write down anything and then I'm trying to remember.

Speaker 3 So I have like a very long entry in my journal where I have written, I try to write about everything that happened for as long as I can remember.

Speaker 3 And I find it really helpful because it helps me

Speaker 3 just bring together everything that's been happening because work can be quite overwhelming. And just like in July this month, I was at so many different places from

Speaker 3 being at the GQ, then I went to Tanzania to visit Malala Fund's projects. Then I have been here in London for these few weeks focusing on

Speaker 3 the work of Recess, our sports fund. We have an incredible team that were all here together in England and,

Speaker 3 you know, we were working on next steps from,

Speaker 3 you know, focusing on fundraising to then also looking at investment opportunities and just looking at how women's sports is actually thriving. And it's a great time for us to be investing in it.

Speaker 3 And then now I'm focusing on the book because I have to do the audio book recording. So the whole next week, I will be doing the audiobook recording.

Speaker 3 And I know I should take care of my voice and speak softly.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 yeah.

Speaker 1 Of course. Well, thank you for

Speaker 1 using your voice here today. Was writing the book almost cathartic for you? I wrote, I'm writing my own memoir.

Speaker 1 going to come out later, later.

Speaker 1 But it's been actually fun to go through and to write everything down and and kind of relive things again and and get it out there how has it been to write it two years ago when i thought about sharing more about my life i had no idea how it will work

Speaker 3 um what would that final draft look like but i just could not wait for that moment and the process in itself can be a bit challenging because There's just so much you can share and you can talk about and you want to explore.

Speaker 3 You want to go through every page of your journal. You want to talk to all of your friends.
You want to talk to all of your family members. You want to like recall these events.

Speaker 3 It's truly fascinating that you remember it very differently than other people.

Speaker 3 And I found that just such an exciting experience that

Speaker 3 I remember things in a different way. And I think that's cool because that way we can share about it and then someone else can reflect on that story and tell us their perspective as well.

Speaker 3 And when the final draft was ready and I read through it, I knew that this is exactly how I wanted the book to look like. It is a coming-of-age story.

Speaker 3 It is the continuation of my story since my last book, which was, you know, just about the girl who was shot by the Taliban and stood up for her rights. But that was it.
She was only 15 years old.

Speaker 3 She had not made friends. She did not know what she wanted to do in her life.

Speaker 3 So in this book, Finding My Way, I am sharing about the journey after that, how I was still a girl in school and I was lonely and how I went to college, became a reckless college student and made friends and found love and had to come to a decision about if I want to get married or not and how to set a new path of my activism and

Speaker 3 focus even more on protecting the right to education for girls because of how this right is still taken from girls, including girls in afghanistan right now who are banned from learning by the taliban and they have not been in school for the past nearly four years so uh this book has helped me uh to to bring everything together So as much as I am excited that this book is complete and I'm going to be sharing this story with other people, they will be able to benefit from it.

Speaker 3 And I hope that it helps somebody who is feeling lonely or is struggling with mental health, who feels a bit lost, that it will help them find their way.

Speaker 3 But this book has also been a healing process for me. I have learned through it so much.
It has helped bring everything together. There were so many topics like I did not want to go back to.

Speaker 3 I did not want to read my journals. I was like, I want to leave everything in the past.
But when you bring it together as a story in a book, it is very powerful because you realize how

Speaker 3 When you were feeling so low and you are in the toughest moments of your life, you actually have overcome them you have grown out of them and now when i when i read all of that and i find myself in a different place i'm just so grateful and uh and and i

Speaker 3 um

Speaker 3 you know i i i'm saying well done to myself for uh for for not giving up so i hope that it can help so many other people out there um and um and i and i hope people enjoy reading it they i try to i've tried to make this book a bit funny and uh

Speaker 3 as well. So I hope they enjoy the humor of it as well.
And yeah, I hope it's a fun read.

Speaker 1 I've read the first part of it. I honestly didn't want to read too much because I wanted to just hear more from you.
But I can't wait for it to come out to read in person.

Speaker 1 But what I did notice, even just from the beginning, was how much it feels like you're genuinely talking to us, which I like.

Speaker 1 I don't, those books, right, when it's by somebody, I'm like, okay, it just feels very like... I want your own voice in it.
I want to feel like this is what you were actually thinking in your head.

Speaker 1 And I think you do that so well. Just some of the little quotes you have in there, it's the little experiences, and even how you know, sometimes describe some of your friends.

Speaker 1 I'm like, okay, this is this is Malala just on the written page.

Speaker 3 Yes, and I wanted my book to be that way because it's not

Speaker 3 a biography, it's not about

Speaker 3 writing a history book where you just want to put your life on record. Like, that was not the point for me.

Speaker 3 I wanted to express exactly what I went through openly with people because I know that we all go through similar emotions.

Speaker 3 And when I was in college and I was going through difficult times, or when I was deciding to get married, and I had a billion questions on my mind, I wish I could read somebody else's story who were in that place who could have helped me.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 it's the stories of other people, their experiences and learnings that can help us

Speaker 3 understand

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 3 it will be okay,

Speaker 3 it will be fine. And I hope that this book is a small contribution to that.

Speaker 1 I'm very excited. Any tips for me as I write my own memoir book?

Speaker 3 I'm so excited for your memoir. I can't wait to read it.
Just

Speaker 3 keep writing.

Speaker 3 And it's a process. The first draft is very different.
from the last draft, but you sort of know, you know, it's heading in the right direction.

Speaker 3 And there will be a point where you have to decide that it's finished. Otherwise, like you can keep editing it forever.
So you have to say, okay, like done. This is what I want to share for now.

Speaker 3 And I think people will absolutely love it. I want to know more about Ilona and

Speaker 3 the incredible

Speaker 3 journey that she has had and how she's become a role model to girls and women and men and boys, everybody.

Speaker 3 And I want to know. I want to understand.

Speaker 3 I want to know everything about your story.

Speaker 1 Malala, I'm blushing. All right, I'll send you my advanced copy.
It probably won't be till 2028. I've been writing it since 2022,

Speaker 1 but I just keep adding a little bit more. And so, kind of what my sisters were saying, just keep writing.
A lot of it might not go in the book, but just keep putting it down.

Speaker 1 And then, like you said, the first draft is not going to be like the last, but I'm just writing.

Speaker 1 Sometimes, when I get mad at a date I went on, I put a chapter in it and I'm like, this probably won't end up in the end, but it's a fun chapter to put put in.

Speaker 3 Yes, keep writing. It will, you will, you will be so grateful for it that you wrote it.
You can even use it in the second edition. You can have a memoir, too.

Speaker 3 You will need it.

Speaker 1 Perfect. Oh, I can't wait.
With that, Malala, I'm going to bring my sisters back in and we're going to have a fun segment with you. Hi, darlings.
Did you miss us?

Speaker 1 Yes. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 2 Good. Because

Speaker 3 I couldn't stop talking about you guys. She was like,

Speaker 3 I have to bring my sisters. Yes.

Speaker 1 They're so fun.

Speaker 1 I love them. But you all hung out at the Harlequins game together.
So you guys are all kind of besties anyway. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, yes.

Speaker 1 We were freezing together on Valentine's Day.

Speaker 3 It was freezing cold. I don't get it.
Like, my toes were actually frozen.

Speaker 2 I'm not kidding.

Speaker 3 Actually. And then, like, actually.
I think about them.

Speaker 1 on the field like hitting the hard cold ground. I'm like, God, not.
Thank you, Alona, for your service.

Speaker 1 Like, for the entertainment.

Speaker 3 And those little girls were waiting for Ilona for like two hours. And I love that.
I love that. When little girls want to meet Ilona, that was my favorite part of the whole game.

Speaker 1 I love them too. And I, I, as you saw, I try to make a point to go around to say, to see, say hi to them.
They, here they are. They've made the journey out here.

Speaker 1 The ones that are wearing their little lipstick and they're so excited to see me. I just feel like that's something also special about women's sports is how much we want to connect with the fans.

Speaker 1 And I want to go see them and they're so excited. So I'll do it.
Rain or shine. I broke my nose.
I was still out there seeing my fans.

Speaker 1 I'm for the girls and I will see them. Today, we have a fun segment we would love to do with you called Try Hard with Malala.
So, and as you know, in rugby, to score a point, it's called a try.

Speaker 1 So, we're going to hit you with some rapid-fire questions that you have to try and answer quickly. Are you ready?

Speaker 3 I like the try part, so I will try.

Speaker 2 Yes, go.

Speaker 2 Perfect. All right.

Speaker 1 You have two younger brothers. Who is the most competitive among the three of you?

Speaker 3 All of them are very competitive. I think the middle one.

Speaker 1 Among your siblings, were you the peacekeeper or the rebel?

Speaker 3 Peacekeeper, but I think my brothers will disagree.

Speaker 1 That's, I think I'm the peacekeeper too, Malala. Turns out I'm not.

Speaker 1 I really thought that and they were like, nope.

Speaker 2 See, this is the funny part.

Speaker 3 So my two younger brothers, they would get into a quarrel. They would be fighting.
I would intervene, try to mediate, stop their fight, and then they would turn against me.

Speaker 3 I was like, I am here to resolve the issue, and then they would unite, become like one, and just call me out. I was like, Excuse me, I'm just here for my, you know, playing my part.

Speaker 1 But anyway, you try to do a good thing. What has been your favorite age so far?

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 3 28. I think I love the age that I am right now.
And if you had asked me a year later, I would have said 27.

Speaker 3 I like getting older for now. That's what I'll say.
I like getting older because

Speaker 3 I don't want myself to be stuck in the past, to be thinking so much about the old days. I know that they were fun and good, and there was a lot of excitement to it.

Speaker 3 But it's when you learn and when you grow as a person, you become a better person for yourself and for everybody around around you. I love that.

Speaker 3 So I have learned so much in the past many, many years that I love this age of mine.

Speaker 1 Maloa, I don't want to like brag, but when this episode comes out, it's my birthday and I'm turning 29. We're the same age right now.

Speaker 3 Amazing.

Speaker 1 And also, I agree with that. One of my favorite quotes is

Speaker 1 your greatest accomplishment is your next one. I think that there's so much more I want to do.
And everyone's like, what's the best thing? I'm like, I'm so excited for what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 I'm excited for my 30s. I've told my sisters, I hear your 30s are great.
You know yourself more. And I'm letting you know they're cool so far.
Do you have a drink of choice?

Speaker 3 I love English breakfast tea, black tea.

Speaker 3 I could have that anytime. These days I'm trying Americano and like, you know, black coffee because maybe, you know, I am getting older.
As we said, I am 28. So I do need more caffeine.

Speaker 3 But other than that, any, any drink would work. Yeah.
But tea, tea is my favorite.

Speaker 1 We're big Earl Grey girls. Like, we just always have that at our house.
We're always drinking Earl Grey or mint tea.

Speaker 1 Alona and I tried breakfast tea when we were living in Bristol for those three months. It didn't agree with us.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 Maybe it's the high tannins in it, but we opted for the Earl Grey, which some of our new British friends called me an old lady for, but I'm not holding it against them.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we can give it a try. I would love to invite you to my place and maybe you will reconsider your

Speaker 2 thoughts on black tea.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 1 A proper breakfast tea. So I heard you guys talking about music.
That is my first love always. Do you have a song of the summer?

Speaker 3 A song of the summer. I think I'll just say Hattie Styles, Watermelon, Sugar.

Speaker 2 Okay, yeah. That's a good one.

Speaker 1 That is a good one. Very summer-esque.

Speaker 1 What is your girl dinner?

Speaker 3 I love dark chocolate. I can have dark chocolate anytime.
I love like mixed nuts. I love it with tea.
I love hummus, just, you know, with tips, anything. It could be bread.
And I love bread.

Speaker 3 I love bread. I can have any bread, bread and butter.
Oh, like the list goes on. Anything that I can just, oh, and this is the summertime.
So I love mangoes right now because it's the season. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Pakistani mangoes are like the sweetest, delicious mangoes. I love them.

Speaker 1 That's a perfect girl dinner. You killed it.
Perfect girl dinner. Good job.
Favorite movie? Movie you can watch over and over again.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 3 So I

Speaker 3 love comedy and I can watch any fun movies. I really love the dictator.
I don't know if you guys have seen it, but the dictator is one of those fun movies that I love. I love animation.

Speaker 3 I can like watch all the Madagascar movies. I can watch Shrek.
I can watch.

Speaker 3 Minions. I can watch any of those movies you pick.

Speaker 3 I can watch them anytime do you have any pet peeves i have many pet peeves i think we can we can talk about it forever and and here's the thing like when somebody else does it then it bothers me but if i do it myself then i'm less bothered but it's like you know leaving your your clothes and like laundry on the floor or

Speaker 3 you know for me it's always like oh i'll come back and and and and figure it out or like sort it out but you never have enough time.

Speaker 3 Sort of like when people throw their socks on the floor. I don't know, like all of these things, all of these things.

Speaker 3 I like things to be tidy, as tidy as they can be. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's good.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's head on into the book nook.
So

Speaker 1 in the book nook, we chat about books. We're all big readers.
We love fantasy books. And we saw on your story, I think I even commented on it.
I saw Osir's niece gifted you a copy of Akatar.

Speaker 1 Thoughts on it. How's it going?

Speaker 3 You know, I noticed that people have very strong feelings feelings about akatar and i was getting so many dms and comments asking me about what i think and i have been very careful i said i'll share when i finish the book that's what i say because i'm like what if i like what if people call me out or you know so i'm like i don't want to get into a whole controversial thing so when i finish i'll let everybody know we are waiting Yes, I know, I know.

Speaker 3 I feel like, okay, I'll be ready.

Speaker 1 Do you love fantasy books? What do you mostly read? Like, are you a fantasy reader? Are you, you know, fiction, non-fiction?

Speaker 1 What are you reading? And do you have a book that you've really loved?

Speaker 3 My favorite books are usually nonfiction. I love memoirs.
I love people's personal stories. But I'm also, you know, I can read non-fiction.
I can read fiction as well. I can read a fantasy book.

Speaker 3 I have brought a few books here with me. So My Beautiful Sisters.
is by Khalida Popal.

Speaker 3 She was the captain of the soccer team for women in Afghanistan. And her story is really powerful.
Like when you, if you read My Beautiful Sisters, you will learn all about

Speaker 3 the incredible work she has done, how she took women's soccer to Afghanistan. And then she shares more about what has happened in the past four years.

Speaker 3 When the Taliban took over, the Afghan women's team had to bury their uniform and literally hide their trophies or medals, any record that they had ever played sports, because suddenly sports became a crime for women.

Speaker 3 And the Taliban since then have issued these restrictions on women and girls, banning them from education, work, any public and political participation.

Speaker 3 And sports, sports should be the right for any girl, any woman to have, but in Afghanistan, that's not the reality. Women's sports teams are banned from cricket, from soccer, and from the Olympics.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 all of these players are in exile right now in Australia, in Portugal, in different parts of the world.

Speaker 3 But they're advocating, they're advocating, calling out FIFA, ICC, Olympics, all of these international bodies that they need to stand together with the Afghan female athletes and they need to find ways for them to play because Helping Afghan women play right now is a form of resistance for them against the Taliban.

Speaker 3 And people need to side with the Afghan women and

Speaker 3 really challenge what the Taliban are doing.

Speaker 3 Afghan women and human rights activists call it a gender apartheid because it is a systematic oppression when half of the population by law are banned from all of their rights, from education to work and they're punished if they dare to disobey any of those.

Speaker 3 laws. So we are hoping that this becomes recognized as an international crime.

Speaker 3 This is called a gender apartheid and people like the Taliban, perpetrators like them are held accountable and that we give more support to Afghan women, support their work, fund their work, support the different education initiatives that they are leading.

Speaker 3 Malala Fund supports their work, including their campaign for gender apartheid and online learning for girls, and that we help the female athletes as well. So we have a lot that we can do.

Speaker 3 So yeah, this is her book, Khalida Popal. I love her story.
Frankenstein, I was reading recently. I'm sure everybody knows Frankenstein.
And then the final one is, this is heavy, is this one.

Speaker 3 It's actually a birthdays book, the secret language of birthdays. And it is heavy, but it's like two pages on every

Speaker 3 date. And this is like like gold.
Ilona and Adriana and Olivia, I'll send you a screenshot or like I'll send you a photo of your dates and just tell me if you agree or disagree.

Speaker 3 But this book is like epic.

Speaker 3 Of course, not everybody has to take my recommendations for reading. So if you guys want to ignore the monthdays one, you can, but I'll definitely recommend these other ones for you guys to read.

Speaker 3 Adding

Speaker 1 to my to be read pile, all of those for sure, but also the birthday ones. I love that.
I was literally going to go, that's okay. Just read me my pages right now.
I'm I'm so curious.

Speaker 1 So I'll definitely take that photo.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 Yes. I'm going to read Beautiful Sisters.
That's amazing. That is so cool.
And, you know, once you have sisters in the title, it works out for us over here, huh?

Speaker 3 One of the reasons why I was looking at starting Reese as a women's sports fund was because I met so many

Speaker 3 women from different parts of the world who want to get the opportunity to play, but they do not have that right. They do not have those opportunities because of different reasons.

Speaker 3 And the story of Afghan women is one of them because right now their teams are banned from playing. And I support them, I advocate with them.

Speaker 3 So I do believe that Resource will become that platform that will create more opportunities for women and girls to play from any part of the world.

Speaker 3 When we create these leagues, when we create these tournaments, when we invest in these athletes, they could be from any part of the world and it can help us

Speaker 3 ensure that women and girls have more equal opportunities. So

Speaker 3 yeah, that's that's sort of my hope.

Speaker 1 Well, that is amazing. And I'm coming over to England soon for the World Cup.
I'll get you to a game again.

Speaker 1 And hopefully, you know, it'll be a little warmer, hopefully. But again, thank you for coming on, Malala, for what you're doing for, you know, the world in general, for women's sports.

Speaker 1 It's so, you know, dear to my heart. I'm so excited to read your book fully.
I'm going to get a hard copy and I'm going to really dive into it.

Speaker 1 You're amazing. You are a girl's girl.
And we're so honored you decided to join us here in the House of Mar.

Speaker 3 Yeah, thank you so much. And all of you are incredible.
I love your,

Speaker 3 you know, the sisters' friendship. And Ilona, thank you for all that you do.
Truly, you are an inspiration. We have been doing the sports work for the past two and a half years.

Speaker 3 You get mentioned in every meeting. You are already changing things.

Speaker 3 You may not know this, but the conversation is different in rooms now because of you. So thank you for what you do.

Speaker 3 And I hope that we will be inspiring many more girls and women to believe in themselves, to do what they love, and we will have many more Ilonas

Speaker 3 in every sport.

Speaker 3 And yes, they will shine, they will thrive.

Speaker 1 I'm blushing again.

Speaker 1 Thank you so much. And make sure to check out Malala's new book, Finding My Way Out this October.
Thanks so much for coming over to to the House of Marr, a wave original.

Speaker 1 Be sure to watch and subscribe on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Plus, follow the show on social media at House of Marr for clips and behind-the-scenes content.

Speaker 2 Bye. Bye-bye.

Speaker 1 Bye. Love you.