She’s not exactly starving for affirmation.
To the contrary, Malala Yousafzai is a global icon.
Since 2012 when, as a 15-year-old Pakistani girl, she survived being shot in the head by a Taliban thug, she has met with heads of state, addressed the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
It says something, then, that this celebrated woman finds validation in a Marvel superhero. “Ms. Marvel,” to be exact, now streaming on Disney+.
On screen as in the comics, Ms. Marvel is a Muslim teenager named Kamala Khan, a high school student from Jersey City, the sweetly awkward, superhero-obsessed daughter of Pakistani immigrants whose complicated life becomes exponentially more so when she gains the usual powers beyond mortal ken.
“It is not every day,” wrote Malala on Twitter, “that I turn on the TV and find a character who eats the same foods, listens to the same music or uses the same Urdu phrases as me. What a joy to see Ms. Marvel reflect the lives of a Pakistani immigrant family …”