For more than 20 years, Ziauddin Yousafzai has been fighting for equality – first for Malala, his daughter – and then for all girls throughout the world living in patriarchal societies. Taught as a young boy in Pakistan to believe that he was inherently better than his sisters, Ziauddin rebelled against inequality at a young age. And when he had a daughter himself he vowed that Malala would have an education, something usually only given to boys, and he founded a school that Malala could attend.
"When she was born and I saw her for the first time, her eyes were open, shining, and in that moment my heart and soul filled with joy," he said to a full Festival Tent. "My cousin gave me a family tree. It only had the men on it. So, I took a pen and wrote: Malala."
"I knew that if I wanted my daughter to be emancipated, to be free, she had to be educated. If I wanted her to be different to my sisters, she had to be educated."
As the Taliban's influence grew, Yousafzai was one of the few to speak out. "The first thing I did was to write to the Taliban in the local newspaper. What they were doing was wrong. I received lots of letters of support. Up until then, there was silence. That article was a stone in the water."
"It was scary to speak against the Taliban. But it was scarier not to raise your voice. It’s better to die than to live without dignity, basic freedom, basic rights."
And his daughter was quick to follow suit. "The BBC asked me if a female teacher at my school would write something for their blog. They were too scared. Malala did it. It was such a powerful voice. It spread. It was everywhere in Pakistani media."
Then in 2012, Malala was shot for standing up to the Taliban by continuing to go to her father's school, and Ziauddin almost lost the very person for whom his fight for equality began.
"I was totally shocked. I forgot how to cry. My book is dedicated to those two doctors who saved her life," he said.
Let Her Fly is Ziauddin’s journey from a stammering boy growing up in a tiny village high in the mountains of Pakistan, through to being an activist for equality and the father of the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, now one of the most influential and inspiring young women on the planet.
"The response from the world was incredible. It was indifferent to class, colour, race. Now Malala's speaking for 130 million girls all around the world."
Ziauddin Yousafzai was speaking at Hay Festival Winter Weekend on 25 November 2018. Listen again to Hay Festival Winter Weekend events on Hay Player now.