Writing Rights: Eva Mangan (14) - Malala

In the first of two workshops with Fighting Words, we talked about the rights of young people and how important issues are being promoted through a variety of mediums. One such story that caught Eva Mangan's attention was the story of Malala Yousafzai and her fight for the right for education for girls.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24435564

Eva has been captivated by Malala's story for some time, and was inspired to write a poem about the right to education and how she feels, among her peers, it is often taken for granted.

Below is a transcript of what Eva had to say.

0:00 (Music) 0:03 I’m Eva, I’m 14, I’m from Stillorgan. 0:06 Ever since the Malala story was on the news I’ve always been really interested in it because she was kind of, she wasn’t my age but she was kind of around my age, and she’s doing amazing stuff, like, she’s blogging about all of this horrible stuff that's going on in her country and then she got shot in the head and I’ve always been like, a big supporter of hers and I really admire her so to write something about human rights or around that topic, I immediately went to Malala and like, the right to an education because I think it’s really important in this country that we completely take it for granted whereas in other countries girls would give their right arm to go to school. And, yeah, I just think that’s a big issue, so I decided to write about Malala .... and this is called Malala. 0:48 Malala It’s strange how we’re dying to get out while they’re dying to get in, literally. How we take learning for granted. We say the school system is too hard. We learn in routine comfort. While her words are scarred.

© Eva Mangan 2014

Accompanying Music: 'Absolute Voice' by Ana Gog. http://www.anagogmusic.com/

Fighting Words is a creative writing centre established by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love. http://www.fightingwords.ie/