Malala’s love story: ‘Never getting married’ to finding the love of her life |
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who is an icon of resilience and education advocacy, opens up about her love story in her upcoming memoir, ‘Finding My Way.’ Yousafzai, now 28, wed Asser Malik in a small nikkah ceremony at their Birmingham home in November 2021, surrounded by family. From saying “I do not want to get married… or at least not until I’m 35,” to finally finding the love of her life, here’s a sneak peek into Malala Yousafzai’s love story.
Malala wasn’t keen about marriage before meeting Asser Malik
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate wasn’t really keen about getting married. In fact, she thought she wouldn’t get married until she turned 35. “I do not want to get married… or at least not until I’m 35. I heard myself blurt out those words – reactionary, half-consciously – many times over the last few years when asked about relationships. I wasn’t against marriage, but I was cautious about its practice,” Yousafzai wrote in a personal essay for British Vogue. She questioned the patriarchal roots linked to the institution of marriage, the compromises women are exected to make, how laws regarding relationships are influenced by cultural norms and misogyny in many corners of the world. “I feared losing my humanity, my independence, my womanhood – my solution was to avoid getting married at all,” she wrote. All those doubts vanished away, when she met Asser Malik, a cricket executive from Lahore, Pakistan.
Love story set in Oxford
Yousafzai and Malik first crossed paths in the summer of 2018 at the University of Oxford, where she was pursuing a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. Malik, then 29, was visiting friends on campus. After meeting, they stayed connected via phone. “After that first phone call when I told him what I was going through at Oxford—the exhaustion and panic attacks—he called almost every day. At first he mostly checked on my health, making sure I took my iron pills and gently lecturing me when I admitted to eating nothing but French fries for two days in a row. Then our conversations got longer, stretching to include topics like celebrity crushes, our childhood dreams, and the existence of God. Asser kept up with all the gossip about my friends’ love lives; I learned that he loved to deejay in college but gave it up after he witnessed a murder at an illegal rave in Lahore. Like most of my friends, I preferred texting over phone calls, but with Asser, I could talk for hours,” the excerpt published in Vogue from the memoir reads.
Crazy romance
Their friendship soon blossomed into romance. Malala recalled how they acknowledged it. He called her ‘babe’ and told her that she looked beautiful in the picture she sent him. She also talks about her lack of dating experience, which turned her into someone with a romantic tool kit of a 12-year-old girl. Just like everyone else, she was also crazy in love, sulking if he sent a text saying he had a busy day ahead. She would write back, “u don’t even have time for me. must not be that important to u.” Malik used to call her ‘the president of the drama club’.
Secret romance
Dating as a global figure meant constant caution. “No looking, no touching, no dating…those were the Pashtun rules,” Yousafzai writes. She also revealed how one evening they went for a date at a countryside restaurant. Yousafzai left her house wearing a salwar kameez that met her mother’s approval, but slipped into a sleeveless, form-fitting dress in pale pink lace and her ‘highest heels’. Malik’s reaction? He pulled out her chair and whispered, “You’re a sex bomb!.” The upcoming memoir also tells about how Yousafzai is living her life to the fullest.
Marriage
The couple tied the knot in 2021. Sharing pictures of the big day on social media, she wrote, “Today marks a precious day in my life. Asser and I tied the knot to be partners for life. We celebrated a small Nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families. Please send us your prayers. We are excited to walk together for the journey ahead.”
She found a true friend in Malik, on on his birthday last month, she posted a few moments from their life and wrote, “On your birthday, I celebrate the friend who makes every day brighter: from the way you listen to my late-night ramblings and make me laugh when I’m taking life too seriously, to making sure the laundry gets done and being patient when I’m running late.”
