(English) Malala and Muzoon reunite to proclaim benefits of education

Are two Malalas better than one?” I ask, only partly in jest, of two smiling teenagers sitting on a purple sofa in a gleaming public library in northern England.
It elicits some quiet giggles.
“Or two Muzoons,” 18-year-old Malala Yousafzai immediately chimes in. Muzoon Almellehan, 17, hands clasped demurely in her lap, smiles shyly at the world’s most famous campaigner for girls’ education who is fast becoming the best of friends.
On a cold rainy day, their two families are reunited in a glass fronted room in Newcastle City Library which offers sweeping views of Muzoon’s new home in Britain. Her Syrian family is among the first to come to the UK from refugee camps on Syria’s borders.
Image copyright Reuters
When the Pakistani teenager who survived a Taliban assassination attempt travelled to Syria’s border with Jordan nearly two years ago to meet refugees fleeing the war, she heard about a girl they called “the Malala of Syria”.
Young Muzoon was going from tent to trailer in the camp, urging nervous parents to educate their daughters instead of marrying them off.
Their teenage lives were changed forever by two very different conflicts. Now they are both schoolgirls in Britain whose lives are changing again.
“We want a Malala-Muzoon army to inspire young girls to stand up for their rights,” Malala declares as Muzoon nods firmly in agreement. “We always wanted to work together and now we can.”
Their next project for Syrian girls’ education will be launched in early February during a major aid conference in London.
Malala is already an accomplished activist with a fund in her name that’s growing in scale and ambition. I saw her mark her entry into adulthood in July with an unusual 18th birthday celebration – she cut her cake, in the shape of a school, as she opened her first school for Syrian girls.
But the young campaigner – already a Nobel laureate – is generous in her praise for her Syrian friend who is a little bit younger and a lot less experienced in the ways of the aid world.”I was with some schoolgirls in the refugee camp in Jordan and one girl said to me: ‘It was wonderful meeting you, but it’s not you, it’s Muzoon who inspired me to get an education,'” Malala recounts.
She also remembers the “horrible situation in camps without electricity where it gets really hot in summer and really cold in winter”.
“When you start something, it’s always difficult,” reflects Muzoon as she ponders her new life in a very different culture.
Her fluency in English has improved considerably in recent years. Mastering it is now one of her goals so she “can talk to Malala about everything” and pursue her dream to become a journalist.
Both girls grew up in conservative Muslim families with fathers who were teachers who instilled in them a love of education.