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Malala Yousafzai has turned her hand to filmmaking as activism.

In a Sky News broadcast exclusive, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said that her “next phase” of human rights work needed to include “storytelling”.

Malala said: “Activism needs to go beyond working for an NGO.

“We need to find other ways in which we challenge the social norms that deny women their basic rights, their dignity.

“The screen helps us to connect with people and helps us be more tolerant towards others.”

Malala is the executive producer of Joyland. This Oscar-longlisted queer love story, directed by Saim Sadiq, explores transgender sexual desire in Pakistan, a strict Islamic republic.

Creating safe spaces for all women is fundamental to Malala’s human rights mission.

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In 2012, when she was 15, she was shot in the head by the Taliban while she was campaigning for girls’ schooling in Pakistan.

Malala was treated in Birmingham for her injuries.

Malala was shot by the Taliban at the age of 15.
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Malala was shot by the Taliban at the age of 15

She then attended Edgbaston High School, before going on to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford.

In 2014 she became the youngest individual to ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Even after her ordeal, Malala refused to be silenced – and instead fought harder. She set up an NGO called Malala’s Fund, using her influence to champion the rights of all women around the globe.

Pic: Studio Soho Distribution / Khoosat Films
Image:
Pic: Studio Soho Distribution / Khoosat Films

‘Everyone’s story is important’

Now 25, Malala told Sky News: “I’m so grateful that Saim made sure the trans role was played by a trans woman. This was critical.

“This in itself is a huge accomplishment for Pakistan to make sure everyone gets the chance to make it to the screen.

“Everyone’s story is important. Everyone’s story deserves to be told by them. And a trans person should be given the rights that everybody else is given.

“What is really unfortunate is how we don’t want people to talk about issues, how we don’t want these stories to make it to the screen. I hope that we challenge that.”

Malala delivers speech to the UN assembly.
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Malala delivers speech to the UN assembly

Joyland attempts to do just that. It is the first major Pakistani motion picture to feature a trans actor in a lead role.

Despite being Pakistan’s Oscars contender, the country’s government banned the film in August, after increasing pressure from hardline Islamic groups that called it “repugnant” and “highly objectionable”.

Scene from Joyland. Pic: Studio Soho Distribution / Khoosat Films
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Scene from Joyland. Pic: Studio Soho Distribution / Khoosat Films

Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, a senator in the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, said: “Glamourising transgenders in Pakistan, as well as their love affairs, is a direct attack on our beliefs.”

Amnesty International said the ban was “censorship” and represented a “crackdown of freedom of expression”.

The decision was overturned mid-November, and now the film is available – with some edits – across the country, bar Punjab, where the film is set.

Director Saim Sadiq speaks to Sky News about upcoming movie, Joyland.
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Director Saim Sadiq

Director Saim Sadiq, 31, told Sky News the film “turned out to be a big act of resistance”.

“I realised when the film was being released, that there are a lot of people who are very uncomfortable with just the existence of this film,” he said.

“Banning the film is perhaps the fastest way to make the activism work and to get everybody to talk about the issues we want them to talk about.”

Joyland is out in UK cinemas.

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Lauren Laverne given ‘all clear’ following cancer diagnosis

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Lauren Laverne given 'all clear' following cancer diagnosis

BBC presenter Lauren Laverne has said she has been given the “all clear” after being diagnosed with cancer.

The 46-year-old said in a post on social media that she will return to work next week on The One Show and has been working on new episodes of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

She said she is set to also return to her 6 Music show in the new year.

Laverne announced she was undergoing cancer treatment back in August after a screening test caught the disease “early and unexpectedly”.

She has not specified what type of cancer she had.

Thanking medical staff, friends and all those who sent her get well wishes, Laverne said on Sunday she would most like to thank her husband Graeme and her two children, who she said have been “absolutely extraordinary throughout”.

“It’s been a difficult time but one that has taught me so much about what really matters,” she wrote.

“I can’t say I suddenly regretted never having hiked the Inca Trail, more that I now see more beauty in ordinary things than I could have imagined, and feel more than ever that the small things in life – the connections we make and care we take with each other – are the big things really.”

A new episode of Desert Island Discs is due to air on 1 December, and will be a pre-recorded interview with comedian Mark Steel that is believed to have been done by Laverne before she went on leave.

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She will return to record more episodes as well as Christmas editions of the series over the next few weeks.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “We’re delighted to welcome Lauren back to the studio this month for The One Show and Desert Island Discs, with new episodes airing on Radio 4 from 1 December, and we look forward to welcoming Lauren back to BBC Radio 6 Music in the new year.”

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‘Love you bro’: Zayn Malik’s tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate’s death

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'Love you bro': Zayn Malik's tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate's death

Zayn Malik paid tribute to former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne as he kicked off his solo tour.

Payne died last month of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage” after falling from a third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, according to a post-mortem.

Images from Leeds’s O2 Academy on Saturday showed Malik – who delayed his Stairway To The Sky tour due to Payne’s funeral on Wednesday – shared a tribute.

A message was displayed with a heart on a large blue screen behind the singer reading: “Liam Payne 1993-2024. Love you bro.”

The 31-year-old also previously postponed the US leg of the tour after the “heartbreaking loss”.

He later rescheduled the Edinburgh shows, which had been planned for 20 and 21 November, to December due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

Following Payne’s death, Malik said he “never got to thank” him for his support during some of the “most difficult” times.

“I will cherish all the memories I have with you in my heart forever,” he said in a post on Instagram.

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Malik rose to fame in 2010 when Simon Cowell teamed him up with Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan on talent show The X Factor.

Malik left the band in 2015 and all members went on to pursue their own solo careers.

An investigation has been launched into Payne’s death by prosecutors and three people have been charged in connection with the incident.

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.

Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing

The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.

The model who brought the case – which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for another musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC said, citing the lawsuit.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-year-old.

A representative for Ye was approached for comment by NBC News on Saturday.

The New York City Police Department said it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.

The lawsuit alleges that a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.

The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.

The lawsuit adds the claimant, who was said to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable but went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.

When in the room, Ye is said to have ordered the production team to start playing the music, to which he did not know his lyrics and instead rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.

The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”

While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both hands, according to NBC.

It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” with his hands, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”

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Universal Music Group is also named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.

The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC.

Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, said the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.

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