Malala Yousafzai is one of the kids whose childhood is defined by their core memories attached to Taylor Swift songs, and she shared her story of becoming a Swiftie in a recent interview.
The 29-year-old activist recalled that back in Pakistan, her singing the pop superstar’s songs became an act of rebellion in itself.
Yousafzai noted, “my school best friend in Pakistan, Moniba, and I used to love to sing it together. You know, we went on this school trip; behind us is this beautiful waterfall and we are surrounded by these beautiful trees in the mountains, and we were so confident! We thought we sang beautifully, though we did not. And we were like, ‘Yeah, we are going to sing Taylor Swift songs to all of these classmates.’”
She continued, “you know, because singing was once banned, girls’ education was once banned, and we were like, you know, the best way for girls to fight back, to thrive, is to just do everything that they’re being told they can’t. So, like, you tell us we can’t sing, we can’t learn—here we are on our school trip singing Love Story by Taylor Swift.”
Fans flocked to the comments and responded, “My first album of all time was Redby Taylor Swift. And it’s crazy cause I was more of Katy Perry and Rihanna fan back then. It just goes on to show that Taylor really is an album artist.”
Another added, “fearless [heart emoji].”
While a third applauded Yousafzai, writing, “They [critics] don’t like it when we speak out about the sexism we face. It doesn’t fit their narrative. But to us brown and MusIim women who dare to dream of freedom, she is an absolute icon.”
2026-09-18 16:02:00
