For activist Malala Yousafzai, a documentary about South Korean women divers is part of the good fight

Malala Yousafzai had a confession: “I cannot swim.”
As far as admissions go, only mildly surprising, but also one oozing with wet irony, given the subject of our conversation, held during the Toronto International Film Festival back in September. She had been in Toronto, after all, as a producer of “The Last of the Sea Women,” the all-too-absorbing Apple TV Plus doc about the OMG haenyeo divers of South Korea. Those real-life mermaids, in a way, from Jeju Island who’ve been free-diving (without oxygen) to harvest seafood for centuries and who are now all in their 60s — and up!
The woman before me, sitting in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton, might have a Nobel Prize to her name and a head-scarved visage that’s easily one of the most famous in the world, but do not dare get her — I repeat, do not — in the water. “I would drown within a second,” Yousafzai catastrophized with a laugh.
“They live in the now and they act in the now. They are there for each other in moments of difficulty and joy,” she had gone on to say about these amazing Zoomers of the ocean or, as they like to call themselves “Guardians of the Sea.” An almost mythic band of women who have only adopted wetsuits and goggles in the last few decades, and who now utilize motorboats rather than rowboats — gasp! — to reach diving sites.
A conversation, in fact, that has come hurtling back to me over the last week or so, since the tremors of the American presidential election. In a topsy-turvy world, where hope seems to be in short supply for many and the promise, finally, of a female president proved elusive (again), I found myself rewatching “The Last of the Sea Women.” (It is up on the streamer now.) As far as palette-cleansers go for this moment in time, it does the trick, I can confirm.
Using only their breath, after all, the haenyeo can descend over 100 metres, staying underwater up to three minutes. Metaphor … anyone?
Talking all things oceanic with Malala is one of the things I will take away from 2024 as the year narrows. In part because she is, amazingly, 27 now and married — I met her with her husband, Asser Malik, at a party here earlier — and it has been 10 years since, at 17, she became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. And, indeed, a whole 12 years since she survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban.
Fact: the lifelong activist and Oxford graduate continues to fight the good fight, in part through a production company launched with the goal that “storytelling can help us bring connections between communities and bring attention to the shared humanity that we all enjoy.”
Sitting by her side during our chat was the director of the film, American-Korean Sue Kim, who first encountered the “underwater girl gang” that is the haenyeo during a trip to the motherland when she was eight, and has kindled a fascination ever since, drawn to the idea of Jeju Island as a “matriarchal society.” Together, they helped fill me in some more.
Kim, who further loves that these divers represent such a departure from the stereotype of the demure, quiet Asian woman — these sea women are bold and loud and even sometimes cantankerous, unapologetically taking up space — told me that everyone in South Korea knows about the haenyeo, but their profile has soared since UNESCO recognized them. On the island itself, there “are haenyeo statues everywhere … there are haenyeo restaurants.” A whole industry of mythology.
“A bit like what Anne Shirley is to Prince Edward Island,” I quipped, which drew a laugh. “Anne of Green Gables! It is the same thing,” Kim riffed. (Except that these ladies are real!)
Halfway through the doc, things take on a more activist temperature, as the women come to realize that radiation-contaminated water from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident (about a thousand miles away) will soon be released into the ocean. This fuels organized protests that include 72-year-old Soon Deok Jang — hardly the oldest active diver in this group — going to the UN to speak about water pollution.
No doubt this was something that struck a chord with Malala. And what drew her to the project?
“I have also been trying to figure what the haenyeo have figured out,” she admitted. “Everyone will see it from their own point of view, but for me it is their friendship. How they all work together, they laugh together … they dive into the ocean together, they protest together.
“The work I have been doing for girls’ education, as an activist, it has really been the collective work of activists that keeps you going,” she went on. “Activism can be a very lonely journey.”
The idea of a “calling” is a compelling one in film, be it documentaries or scripted movies. Catnip for viewers. And it is exactly what one of the sea women calls it here.
“The reason why she said that specifically — that is not an occupation, it is a calling — is that this is a thing they live,” Kim jumped in when I brought that up. “They live by the ocean, they love the ocean. It is a part of their soul. They live in harmony with the ocean. It is not one of convenience or employment. Nothing is going to stop them.”
To which, Malala added: “One of my favourite lines in the film, towards the end, is when one of them says: even in my next life, I will dive again.”