Malala Yousafzai Brings Wit and Grit to GQ Hero Interview, Lensed by Elizaveta Porodina AOC Fashion

Shot-in-the head while sitting on her school-bus in 2012, Taliban gunman survivor Malala Yousafzai was among the British GQ Heroes 2025 honored in early July. AOC notes that Brunello Cucinelli was also among the artists, activists and radical thinkers at the two-day event and on the cover of British GQ’s special issue. We must track him down.

One look at Malala’s photos and Anne said: ‘Porodina.’ AOC has followed Malala from the day she was shot, and I’ve never seen her look so poetically beautiful. And grownup as a married 27-year-old woman.

Dena Giannini styles Malala in Anneli Tammik, A.W.A.K.E. MODE, Gareth Pugh, Malala in Critter, Harris Reed, Haute Hijab, Marni, Panconesi, Richard Quinn, Rick Owens, Robert Wun, Simone Rocha and more./ Hair by Anna Cofone; makeup by Laura Doominique

Malala’s Wit

The folks at Apple TV, including CEO Tim Cook, will tell you that Malala has great wit and it’s not always subtle in her delivery. Malala herself will tell you that she would like to be a comedian if the world wasn’t in such constant need of her activism.

GQ’s interview by Adam Baidawi launches on a private practice golf range an hour southeast of London. And she is giving him instructions.

“Keep your head down,” Yousafzai says. “Keep it in that exact position.”
I obey. Iron and Callaway make a miraculous connection.
WHOOOSH – thwack?!
“That is incredible,” she says. It will be my only good shot of the day.

The Uncomfortable Truths for Activists

Much of the interview is devoted to all the back-sliding happening around the world on women’s rights — and especially in Afghanistan, where Malala is deeply involved in girl’s education. And how activism has gone lukewarm in many countries around the world.

Badawai asks a critical question:

What’s an uncomfortable truth about the work that you do?
She takes a long pause and lets out a gentle laugh. “I was gonna say many. The nature of this work is such that it requires patience and impatience at the same time, and I have learned to live with that,” she says. “I always have this sense of urgency inside me. Every day, it feels like we failed, every day it feels like yet another day a girl is out of school in Afghanistan. Yet another day that 120 million girls [worldwide] remain out of school. But at the same time, it’s this patience. You know, this is how much I can do today. This is how much I can do tomorrow. This is how much I can do the day after, so that we can maybe change something.”