years old I’m a youth political
inclusion activist but no I’m nothing
like Malala yousufzai my life isn’t that
interesting
I’m just Sabah I’m not brave or
courageous oh cool I don’t go on
expeditions I don’t have inspiring story
to tell you but I do have a story to
when you get told for the first time
you’re quite well spoken for someone
that wears a headscarf or I can’t
believe your dad lets you do this not
only do you realise that there’s a huge
stigma attached to you
you realize that you’re a slave to your
own circumstances imagine that being
held down by the things you can’t
control
you have to realize that there’s a lot
of young people like me that are born
into circumstances that put them down
their race their gender their sex their
ethnicity the very thing that makes them
who they are and that’s scary it’s scary
when you think about these ugly thoughts
and you give in to the idea of just
caving in us young people we go through
this axe this unsureness of which part
to take what to do when life throws all
these questions that you just when you
think you have the right answers the
questions they change again am I good
enough will I make it can I even do it
should I just give up
now I can’t even tell you how many times
I’ve been so close just giving up and
giving into that life that’s already
been written for me getting married
maybe 21 when I get a degree that I’ll
probably never get to use have a kid or
you get the gist no thanks so in my
journey as a political inclusion
activist you meet the big corporates in
their massive offices the super fancy
and super cool and then you meet the
people that really make this stuff
happen the volunteers and today at TEDx
Camden is all volunteer run so could we
have a little whoop all of them and you
meet people that are gonna laugh at you
and think you’re cheesy president
wannabe but if you’re gonna be a wannabe
anything I think you should be a wannabe
president I mean come on but there have
been moments where this it all seemed a
bit hopeless my efforts seem hopeless
they seem embarrassing everyone at
school is kind of laughing at me but
because they’re all losers anyways so
I’m sink in my GCSE exam as you do
biology it’s a 16 minute paper and this
16 minute paper dictated the rest of my
life because in that moment I had
realised that I’m never gonna fulfill my
parents dreams of me becoming a doctor
and a housewife and a mother of 10
children at the same time it’s all very
confusing when you’re Pakistani but
anyways so I’m never gonna fulfill their
hopes of me becoming a doctor I’m not
gonna live out the life that’s been
written for me so in that moment I
embrace the fact that I had failed I’ve
got to see that in that moment I had
braced the fact that I failed I looked
over at the top set kids you know racing
through the papers flipping geniuses and
there’s fifth sets a bar stuck but in
that moment something told me to put my
head up literally I put my head up and
in front of me there’s a window and
outside that window you never guess what
was out
that window a tree a tree was outside
the window but there’s something
different about this tree and there’s
something different about this day I’m
looking out the window and I see these
beautiful green leaves swaying with the
wind the sky is a shade of blue I never
cared to pay attention to before and in
that moment I feel nothing but gratitude
to be alive in that moment I feel
nothing but gratitude to be sitting a
GCSE exam because I recognize beauty for
the first time in my life I was seeing
beauty and its purest and most simple
form and then I could feel nothing but
shame and disgust for how I’d been
thinking about myself and about my life
because I’m not a victim I’m not that
Muslim gold that’s good at some things I
am just that goal that is good at things
I attached this mindset to everything
else and I’d realize what I should have
always known this derogatory
discriminatory racist sexist sad and
sick world we live in it’s pretty beautiful