NWC News Desk

Pakistani student helps inform movie discussion Wednesday, March 16

Posted March 2, 2016
By NWC News Desk

POWELL, Wyoming — A Northwest College student from Pakistan will be among the discussion leaders at a free screening of the movie “He Named Me Malala” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, in the NWC Intercultural House.

An after-movie discussion will be led by former NWC faculty member Harriet Bloom-Wilson and Saddam Hussain, an NWC student from Pakistan who has ties to the area featured in the movie.

The Academy Award-nominated documentary offers a portrait of Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education. The attack on her sparked an outcry around the world. She survived and became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

NWC’s Hussain will contribute a personal perspective to the discussion about the film—he shares a Pathan ethnicity with the movie’s heroine, and his home in Pakistan is located only an hour and a half from the Sawat Region where she lives.

The movie takes a broad look at Malala’s life, from her close relationship with her father, who inspired her love for education, to her impassioned speeches at the U.N., to everyday life with her parents and brothers. It is directed by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim.

This event is one of many activities scheduled in March as part of the college’s celebration of Women’s History Month. It is sponsored by the NWC Office of Intercultural Programs.