Malala Yousafzai And Asser Malik And “Necessary” Plus One

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai announced her wedding to partner Asser Malik on social media Tuesday, and Internet sleuths lost no time in digging up old photographs of the couple together. One picture, in particular, caught the Internet’s attention – thanks to a surprising cameo from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. 

When Malala turned 24 in July this year, Asser had wished the Nobel Peace Prize laureate with a picture of the two of them posing next to a life-size cut-out of her favourite actor, Shah Rukh Khan. Malala is a self-confessed fan of the Bollywood star – she once invited him to speak at Oxford University, and later praised his performance in the 2018 film Zero.

The photo shared by Asser Malik shows Malala dressed in a light blue salwar kameez for her 24th birthday. She was photographed posing with Asser next to the life-size cardboard cut-out of Shah Rukh Khan. 

“Happy Birthday to the most amazing @Malala. @iamsrk had to make a necessary cameo of course,” Asser wrote while sharing the picture. 

Happy Birthday to the most amazing @Malala ???? @iamsrk had to make a necessary cameo of course. pic.twitter.com/kSFBgSqzVz

— Asser Malik (@MalikAsser) July 12, 2021

Although it was shared four months ago, the photo resurfaced on Twitter after Malala announced her wedding on Tuesday. 

The cut-out was a gift to Malala on her 24th birthday a friend who had earlier shared a glimpse of it on Twitter. 

happy birthday to @Malala who will now share her home with this life size Shahrukh Khan cardboard cut-out because of my inability to give practical birthday presents pic.twitter.com/3hBRlSwL6G

— Sara (@amsateal) July 12, 2021

“I think Shah Rukh Khan possesses some kind of a Midas touch,” Malala had told Times of India in an interview in 2015. “Whatever he does is absolutely perfect. I love all the films that I have seen of him, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge being an all-time favourite.”

On Tuesday, Malala shared pictures with her husband from their nikkah ceremony which took place in Britain’s Birmingham. The 24-year-old said she and her new husband had celebrated at home with their families. Asser Malik, who is from Lahore, is an entrepreneur and the general manager of the Pakistan board’s High Performance Centre. 

Congratulatory messages have poured in from across the world for the activist, who was 15 when she was shot in the head in 2012 in Pakistan by a member of the Taliban for defying a diktat banning girls from school. 

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