Go Big Read speaker blog post-Melissa Quirk

I really enjoyed seeing Shiza Shahid speak, she was very moving and her story was extremely interesting. Shiza Shahid spoke about her life story, goals, and things she learned. Shiza Shahid came from Pakistan and grew up in an extremely violent time. She discusses her childhood, the terrorism, extremism, and focuses mainly on the restriction of women. She discusses how she spent her time with other people facing hardship as well. It was appalling to hear that women and girls were not allowed to leave a room in fear of their brothers being ashamed of them. Shiza Shahid's insight into her horrible world was eye opening and what she took from it was inspiring. Shiza took this terrible environment she lived in and decided to make it her mission to help others. Shiza even organized a protest at the young age of 16. She describes how even when she had moved on to Stanford University, she still wanted to make a change for women and young girls facing the terrible discrimination in her home country. She explains that she saw a video of a young girl saying that she was not able to go to school because the Taliban would not allow it. This struck Shiza strongly, and she decided to make a plan. She made anonymous videos of young girls speaking on the discrimination and their inability to go to school. It was disturbing to hear that a little girl could not even put on her favorite pink dress because the Taliban did not approve of bright colors. Shiza's main points were to live with passion, constantly innovate and create, and overall know that you are strong. It was so eye opening to hear about how in other countries women do not have the same rights that we take for granted. It was also interesting to hear Shiza's relationship to Malala and how she faced similar hardships. This speech inspired me because of how much Shiza and Malala did, with such terrible circumstances.