In an era that is slowly becoming defined by our political divisiveness, it seems that young people are becoming less engaged in the politics that surround them.

The Malta Independent met with Sara Ezabe, a 20 year old law student, who is the Public Policy and Rights Commissioner at National Youth Council ( Kunsill Nazzjonali taz-Zghazagh - KNZ) and has received the Queen's Young Leader Award, which recognises and celebrates exceptional people aged 18 to 29 from across the Commonwealth who are taking the lead in their communities and using their skills to transform lives.

She has also recently launched the Network of Young Women Leaders. We sat down with Sara to discuss her views on gender equality, Islam, and youth political involvement.

You form part of the recently launch Network of Young Women Leaders, would you be able to describe the main objectives of the group?

It all  started with three of us, Samantha, Naomi, and myself, who were all involved with various organisations. We've now expanded to a team of seven who come from different backgrounds; some of us have graduated in social policy and law. We had noticed a leadership gap between women. Women are involved in structures but when it comes to leadership roles they often do not rise up to the highest roles in the structure. It is also a space to discuss and speak about our situation and experiences in being young women. It is not an anti-male group, the point is to encourage young women to find leadership roles. I mean, there are also situations where older women are dismissive of younger women too.

Is there more to be done in Malta to ensure gender equality?

I think the gender pay gap says it all. Obviously when it comes to legislation, there is plenty, but the implementation and enforceability of them is very difficult and complicated. There are so many different forms of inequality between genders, women on women, men on women, women on men, it gets very complicated. However, I do believe that the network has the potential to welcome other young leaders and use it as a safe space for young women to discuss and share ideas about what we can do to solve the situation.

Do you find there is a contradiction between your Muslim faith and your beliefs on gender equality?

I can understand how it may seem controversial, but I don't think so. Female empowerment is very important to me, but I think people even have trouble defining what a feminist is, it does not mean anti-men but rather that we need to work together to achieve equality. We need to look beyond the gender of the person and see what they are capable of. From the religious aspect, I don't find that it hinders me at all, to my knowledge at least, there are no verses in the Quran which says that women cannot act equally in society or that men have more to contribute than women, although I believe that that is more a question of culture and tradition, and I do not think it is impossible to move away from that.

Do you believe that maybe there is an issue within Muslim communities on the issue?

I am genuinely interested in woman's rights, but I also would really like to see more Muslim women take leadership roles, why is it men that need to represent the community all the time, I mean we face the same issues, there should be a gender balance representation. In  movements in America, I see many Muslim women who are the forefront of fighting for their rights and overcoming the barriers, I don't think women need to wait for men to fight for our rights.

As an outspoken Maltese woman and a Muslim you present a very unique cultural perspective, do you receive any sort of backlash?

At university I feel very welcome and do not encounter any barriers and if I am honest Malta and Europe have come a long way and progressed so that people of different faiths and backgrounds can coexist.  I think the problems I have faced is when it comes to the general public or on social media. I'm not saying that some people are overt racists, but rather there are subtle ways of being racist, certain people will call you something while you're walking on the street but it is more this sense of fear you see in people. It's something very personal which you feel. Let's say you are on the bus and people do not sit next to you even if it is the last seat. It is that feeling of being the elephant in the room, it is uncomfortable. It does not hinder me, but it may hinder others. I think it comes from the idea that religion, especially Islam, is always portrayed as this foreign thing coming to Malta, which is not necessarily the case.  Yes, statistics may show that a majority of Muslims are foreign, but the phenomenon of people converting into a certain faith is also existent.

Moviment Patrijotti Maltin have become an outspoken political group that often criticizes and denigrates the Muslim faith, as Maltese woman how does that make you feel?

Well, my campaign 'Redefining Us' aimed to redefine the Maltese identity, to create and be pioneers of new identity for the Maltese people in order for integration to truly work. With regards to these groups, it is raising its head everywhere around Europe and I do feel that most of the time it is coming from a place of misunderstanding, especially in the area of identity. We need to understand how broad and all-encompassing identity could be. Even just looking back throughout our history and seeing how Malta developed, a person can see that we come from all walks of life. It is also important to understand the similarities we have and celebrate our differences which I think can bridge the gap between groups. For example, as a Maltese person I have similarities with you, and as a Muslim and I have similarities with other Muslims, this I think can help bridge the gap.

You seem to have be interested in politics from a young age, from where did it all start?

I've always felt like I was active in the community and voicing my opinions. I always wanted people to acknowledge what I say not because I'm a Muslim woman, but because I have voice, like everyone does. People should be interested in what I do because I am the only one saying it, but I want to believe what I am saying is valid, and I am not the one saying it just because I am different. I am involved because I like to be involved. I do have different interests to people, such as fighting for integration, but maybe if I was not a Muslim woman I would not be involved in such organizations. I just think I am very happy to see people voice their opinion. Even if it's wrong.

With the Moviment, it's not that I do not respect their right to voice their opinion, they are entitled to do that, I just hoped that it would be based on a platform that is informed or factual. When people speak up it allows society to have a broad idea of what is happening in the community. For example, with the US Presidential Election people kept on asking where have all these people been, they've always been there but were not given a voice before. 

Why do you think youth political involvement is so low in Malta?

With the politics as we know it, as in party politics, I don't blame them, I'm not interested myself. The level of discussion is very poor, and I do not find it interesting at all and do not want to be part of that. However, when it comes to the broader understanding of politics, people may say that they do not want to do anything with politics but there are many other forms, for example being part of an NGO is politics. Personally speaking as a university student, there are many organizations and many people are involved without even knowing it is politics. The only issue I find is that I often find myself meeting the same people.  I think if you find something you are passionate about, get involved, read the information on the subject and write something about it. Even it's just a status or a share on social media. I do also think that maybe it is my character that I actively take a role in instigating a conversation or dialogue, other people may be scared. 

My interpretation is that Malta, being a small country, means that everyone knows one another. People may be scared that they will always have to carry what they said, or a movement they joined, which may stigmatize them. It can also be said that maybe it has always been this way, for instance to my knowledge a number of people in the high leadership roles in Maltese politics all formed part of student unions or organizations.

What can student organisation like KSU do to get more people involved?

I'm not in KSU but what I can say is that they do organize a lot of activities, however they are not attended. It is difficult to get to people to come because so many university students either hold part-time or full-time jobs. I do think it also has something to do with a recurring culture; People are sensitive about an issue, but when it comes to speaking up about it, people wait for someone else to say something. For example, last week I formed part of the Women's March and I was shocked. Let's just say for arguments sake that women make up half of the population. That means there are 200,000 women, maybe 150,000 without children. The newspapers may have reported that there were 250 women, but I can tell you there were much less, maybe less than the rallies organised by Ghaqda. Unfortunately, some people are lazy and don't feel the need to go out and speak about the issues that are important to them.

Even party politics has an effect. For example, let's say that there's a person who is a big supporter of sustainable development, but when the political party they support announces a project that is bad for the environment, that person will defend the project because it is "good for the economy". The same applies to good governance and transparency, it all boils down to people doing what their political party says.

Do you feel that KSU's main parties SDM and Pulse are too associated with the main political parties?

Well, I was a candidate for Pulse at University but it was not my main intention as I did not want to be associated with any political parties, as SDM and Pulse are. The system works differently at university, where if one party approaches you and one does not, you take that stand. It is disappointing to see that with KSU, which really does work for all students, a person must associate themselves with a political party to get a leadership role. It is very frustrating and it is why I think there needs to be a space for independent candidates at University and Junior College. Young people need to recognize that politics goes beyond the party. It shows that university students don't like the two party system with voting turnouts being extremely low with a 36% turnout I think. It is as though the two parties are running for KSU like it is a general election. Do you think people actually read their manifests? We need to use these elections to give young people the opportunity to open their minds and think broader, that there is something beyond being interested to do something food for the country without being associated with a political party.

What can KNZ do to better reach young people?

KNZ has had quite a history, but I still think that one of the flaws of the organization is that we do not reach the minds of young people outside of university. KNZ, like KSU, is an umbrella organization, however we do not use open votes and are voted in positions by our members. The organization is mostly made up of student organization at university. There are other groups like GWU youths, but most of the time they do not take part in our activities so it is mostly made up of university students. However, I really do believe we need to start reaching those youths because unfortunately, and maybe my experience as a minority could shed light on this, if there is no one on the council who comes from our social group and truly understands the issues of that group, then it is going to be hard for them to be heard sufficiently. How can I do the best for them when I do not truly know what their lives are like? It is useless to say we are a youth council when we never meet these people. Fine, we do work with Agenzija Zghazagh, which gives us a broad scope of youth issues, but we meet officials and never young people. We do try to reach young minds by organizing initiatives like youth parliament were we get quite a large response. However the structure of KNZ means that university members and organisations are the ones who are truly involved. It is a barrier that has been created since how can a person get elected in KNZ if they are not involved with university organizations, who dominate the group. Unfortunately there's is always something more we can do, I mean we were talking about equal rights at the beginning of the interview and now look there's another issue. If only there was a charity that donated time!

However, I must also say when I compare Maltese students to the ones I meet at conferences abroad I notice a massive difference. Foreign students seem to be very comfortable in public speaking, leadership roles, and are self-confident. Maltese students seem afraid to speak. In my opinion it is the education system that hinders this goal. For 18 years we are taught to blindly follow a teacher, then once we get to university we do not seem to know how to think critically. But even that, are there marks for critical thinking or public speaking at University? There are pioneers at university who do call out for young students to think critically but they are few and far between.