Malala Yousafzai has been applauded online for her expert response one man’s negative comment about young girls’ education.
This week, the 25-year-old activist shared her silent but deadly reaction to a TikToker’s video about girls going to school despite “knowing they’ll end up as housewives”. Although Yousafzai ultimately deleted her TikTok video responding to the boy’s comment, the clip was reposted to Twitter where it has received nearly 360k views.
TikTok user @theycallmeammar14 sparked backlash on the app earlier this week when he said in a video: “Why do brown girls go to school knowing they’ll end up as housewives?”
In response to the since-deleted video, Yousafzai filmed herself silently staring at the camera with a blank expression. Fans of Yousafzai knew exactly what the education activist meant by her video, despite not saying a single word.
“Malala roasted him even without saying anything,” said one Twitter user. “She is a queen.”
“If looks could kill,” tweeted someone else. “She ended him in seconds”.
Another pointed out: “The way she cleared him without saying a word”
Some people joked that being roasted online by Yousafzai was “quite literally one of the most embarrassing things human possible.”
One person tweeted that if they received the same deadpan look from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, they would “never go outside again,” while another joked that Yousafzai didn’t need to dedicate her life to education advocacy “just so you can casually spit out misogyny in the year of our lord 2023”.
This isn’t the first time Malala Yousafzai has been praised for her clever responses. Earlier this month, Yousafzai attended the 2023 Oscars in honour of the Oscar-nominated short film documentary Stranger at the Gate, which she executive produced.
During the ceremony, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel asked “the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history” whether she believed “Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine” at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Don’t Worry Darling last year.
Choosing not to weigh in on “spitgate”, Yousafzai replied: “I only talk about peace.” Unsurprisingly, viewers praised her response and called it a “mic drop” moment.
