Education is neither eastern nor western.

“Education is neither eastern nor western.” Thus spoke Malala Yousafzai, the fearless child of the Swat Valley, who stood against the darkness of ignorance and tyranny with nothing but her voice and her courage. Her words are like a river that cuts through mountains, reminding us that education is not the possession of one culture, one land, or one people. It belongs to all humanity, beyond the borders men draw, beyond the walls nations build. For wisdom knows no east or west, no north or south—it is the birthright of every child born beneath the sky.

The meaning of this saying is that knowledge cannot be confined to geography, religion, or politics. Too often, the world divides itself: East against West, tradition against modernity, one culture against another. But Malala declares that education is above such divisions. A girl in Pakistan who learns to read shares the same gift as a boy in France, or a child in Africa, or a student in America. The letters are different, the languages varied, yet the power of learning is the same. It awakens the mind, strengthens the heart, and frees the spirit. To call it “eastern” or “western” is to make it smaller than it is.

The ancients knew this truth, even as they carried knowledge across the world. The Greeks studied the wisdom of Egypt and Babylon. The scholars of Baghdad preserved Aristotle and Galen, adding their own discoveries in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. Later, Europe inherited that wisdom through the libraries of Moorish Spain, and from it came the Renaissance. Was that knowledge eastern? Was it western? No—it was human. It was the shared flame of civilization, carried from hand to hand across continents and centuries.

Consider the story of Nalanda University in India, where monks and scholars gathered from every land—China, Tibet, Persia, even Greece—to study together. Knowledge flowed freely, transcending borders, religions, and races. So too in Alexandria, where the great library gathered scrolls from across the known world. These were not eastern or western treasures, but the treasures of mankind. Malala’s words stand in the same tradition: education must not be chained to one people or hoarded by one nation.

Her own life bears witness. Denied the right to learn by those who feared the power of educated girls, she declared to the world that knowledge is not foreign, not forbidden, not owned by the East or the West. With her voice, she bridged worlds. She showed that a girl in Pakistan carries the same flame of learning as a boy in London or New York. She stood before kings and presidents, not as East facing West, but as one human soul declaring that education is the common language of freedom.

The lesson for us is this: do not divide what is meant to unite. Do not say, “This kind of learning belongs to them, not to us.” Seek wisdom wherever it may be found—in the East, in the West, in the ancient past, in the modern present. Parents, give your children the world as their classroom. Teachers, let your students see that the pursuit of truth has no boundaries. And each of us, when we learn, must remember that we stand in the great chain of humanity, joined to all who have sought knowledge before us.

So let Malala’s words be a guiding star: “Education is neither eastern nor western.” It is the sun that rises for all, the water that nourishes all, the light that belongs to every child of earth. Honor it as the treasure of humanity. Defend it wherever it is threatened. Share it wherever it is lacking. And in doing so, you will not only honor East or West—you will honor the whole of mankind.