Davos 2018: People like Trump are 'disappointing', says Malala Yousafzai

The 20-year-old Oxford University student, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012, spoke about women's rights at the World Economic Forum

Pakistani women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai spoke at Davos. Reuters

Malala Yousafzai, the world's youngest Nobel Prize winner, told an audience at Davos she was "disappointed" that people like US President Donald Trump "still do not accept women as equals".

Asked if she had a message for Mr Trump, Ms Yousafzai said: “I get so disappointed to see that people in these high positions openly talk against women, do not accept women as equals, they harass women. It is just shocking to think that it is happening. I hope that women stand up and speak out against it.

“I hope that people who are involved in such shameful things think about their own daughters, their own mothers, their own close female relations, and just imagine for a second, could they let it happen to them?

“I don’t think they would accept that.”

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Ms Yousafzai urged women to raise their voices and make themselves heard by those holding outdated views.

She said women could no longer expect men to fight their battles for them.

“Right now, looking at the world and how women are standing up and raising their voice, whether it is Time’s Up or MeToo, this movement is building up by women and they are realising that their voice is so important to that change that they want to see.

“First we wanted men to do something for us but that time has gone now. We are not going to ask men to change the world. We are going to do it ourselves. We are going to stand up for ourselves and we are going to raise our voices and we are going to change the world. I really encourage any women or girls to speak out against any discrimination and any violence that they see in their community and in their society,” she said.

The Oxford University student, 20, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 after campaigning for girls' education.

She used her platform to encourage greater access to education for girls and stressed the importance of education as a tool for promoting gender equality.

“It is so important that education gives the message of equality to every child… right from the beginning if you teach equality at school level they will develop this sense that they have equal rights,” she said.