Shenice Rolle
English 120/16
Dr. Craig Smith
Informal Text- based Argumentative Essay

Let’s Take a Stand
Nicholas D. Kristoff stated, “In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.” Traditionally, men have always been known as the superior gender, while women were seen as inferior. One would think that since time has progressed and ways of thinking has evolved, the world would now be a place where men and women have equal rights; however, this is not the case. While in some countries women have been granted the same opportunities as men, there are still countries where women have little or no rights at all. Some of these countries include Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal, Sudan and Pakistan. Consequently, women who reside in these countries run the risk of being punished or even killed, if they were to stand up for their rights.
A wise author once said “Great leaders are often defined not by their beliefs, but by how they react when those beliefs are tested to the limit.” Despite the fact that she lived in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai demonstrated her bravery by fearlessly petitioning for women’s rights and girl’s education. Yousafzai is a sixteen year old girl who was shot by the Taliban for being an advocate for girl’s education. Yousafzai survived the shooting and continues to be an activist for Women’s and children’s rights. As a result of her bravery she was invited to speak at the United Nations. In her speech, Yousafzai expressed her desire for every child to have a right to an education. She especially focused on women’s rights and girl’s education since they are suffering the most. Although one may argue that Yousafzai relied heavily on her use of emotional appeal, the use of said appeal and logical appeal ultimately proved beneficial to the effectiveness of her argument.
Yousafzai first introduces her audience to emotional appeal by calling them brothers and sisters. She dismisses any formality between them so that the audience will now feel as if their own sister is speaking. This then makes her argument more effective since the audience will listen more intently. “Today is the day of every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights. There are hundreds of Human rights activists and social workers who are not only speaking for human rights, but who are struggling to achieve their goals of education, peace and equality. Thousands of people have been killed by the terrorists and millions have been injured. I am just one of them.” This quote introduces her argument. She is just one of the many people who have raised their voice for their rights and one of the millions who have been injured. Yousafzai used her experience to help evoke emotional appeal from her audience. “Dear Friends, on the 9th of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And then, out of that silence came, thousands of voices.” Being an advocate for human rights- women’s and children’s rights especially is frowned upon in Pakistan. People who try to stand up for these rights are at risk of being killed. Yousafzai appeals to the audience’s emotions by reminding them of what happened. She along with her friends was shot because she was standing up for the rights of women. This use of personal experience definitely spoke to the women in her audience. Yousafzai was shot for standing up for their rights.
In addition to the use of emotional appeals, Yousafzai also used statistics to support her argument. This use of logical appeal helped her speech become more effective. As stated in the text, “In many parts of the world especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism, wars and conflicts stop children to go to their schools. ... Women and children are suffering in many parts of the world in many ways. In India, innocent and poor children are victims of child labour. Many schools have been destroyed in Nigeria. People in Afghanistan have been affected by the hurdles of extremism for decades. Young girls have to do domestic child labour and are forced to get married at an early age.” All of these things stated in the aforementioned quote are facts. These terrible things are happening to date and that is why Yousafzai is speaking out for these people who have no voices. It is a dangerous stance to be a part of but she is brave. By using logos, Yousafzai enables her audience to be educated with what is happening in the world and provides evidence on why they should agree with her and become advocates for the rights of these women and children. In the conclusion if Yousafzai’s speech she calls for the world leaders to “change their strategic policies in favour of peace and prosperity.” She feels as if the world leaders were to stop resorting to wars and try to promote peace, and then there will be a significant change in the world. “We call upon the world leaders that all the peace deals must protect women and children’s rights. A deal that goes against the dignity of women and their rights is unacceptable.” Once again she is reminding her audience that she is an advocate for women’s and children’s rights. She argues that every child should be educated. Therefore, this supports her stance on education. Yousafzai also wants the government to battle against terrorism and hostility, and to protect children from cruelty and violence. Once again this supports her argument that she wants every child to be protected. No child should live in fear.
To conclude, I believe that Malala Yousafzai’s argument was very effective in getting her point across. Her use of the different appeals allowed her audience to fully understand why she was an advocate for women and children’s rights and influenced them to join her in the fight. Yousafzai has brought awareness to all of us on how unfairly women and children are treated. Even though we may not be affected personally by what is happening in Pakistan and other countries, we can still think of them as family. Therefore, we should take a stand with Malala Yousafzai and fight for women’s and children’s rights.