A PORTRAIT of activist Malala Yousafzai has been unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery.
The image by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat shows the Nobel Peace Prize winner along with an inscription of a poem written by Pashtu poet Rahmat Shah Sayel in 2011.
Malala said: “I am honoured to have my portrait included in the National Portrait Gallery alongside some of Britain’s most influential writers, artists and leaders. I hope it will remind visitors that girls everywhere are fighting for change in their communities and countries — their stories must also be heard."Neshat’s work is one of a pair of portraits of Malala, which has been acquired for the National Portrait Gallery Collection.
A second portrait of the Oxford undergraduate shows her seated at a school desk with an open book and will travel to Birmingham Museums. It is set to be unveiled in 2020 as part of Coming Home, a project that showcases 50 works from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection and will travel to places across the UK they are closely associated with.
Neshat described Malala as “an extraordinary young woman who had marvelled the world by her victory over death; her fierce fight for women’s education and for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, all before she turned twenty years old”.
The artist added: “It was impossible not to feel intimidated. Yet as she arrived at the studio to be photographed, I was immediately taken aback by her timid, gentle and innocent demeanour. When I look back on our encounter, I am left with impressions of humility, wisdom and a rare sense of inner beauty.”
