Malala Yousafzai Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Rhetorical Analysis of Yousafzai’s Speech on Education

In Malala Yousafzai’s speech to the United Nations, she expresses her desire to create a world of safety, equality, and peace. While delivering her speech, Yousafzai utilizes her personal testimony and statistical evidence to emotionally engage her audience in her perception of primary global concerns while also rationally supporting her thoughts with real factual based evidence. Her tone, structure of the speech, and acknowledgement of UN leaders all assist in establishing her credibility as a young, intelligent woman with real, first-hand experiences of discrimination, violence, and lack of educational opportunities. Though she specifically emphasizes her focus to be towards women

In the fifth paragraph, Yousafzai briefly shares her story when she says, “on 9 October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead… They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices” (Yousafzai, 1). Yousafzai is only 19 years old. As she stands in front of her audience to tell them that she was shot because she wanted to receive an education, she is able to connect with the audience and redirect their frustration to act for her cause. Yousafzai attempts to engage her audience for the protection of children by saying, “Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child’s bright future” (Yousafzai, 3). Malala mentions children in her speech to connect with those in the crowd that sympathetic for the cause of children. It’s possible that if she spoke on behalf of the children too, as opposed to just women, that she could rally more people to fight for education. Finally, Yousafzai’s utilization of pathos is successful in creating an emotional drive in her audience by sharing her testimony and accounts of people who also suffer for speaking up for their right to education, peace, and