On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize and now stands as one of sixteen female recipients in history.

As a strong supporter of Malala from the very first time I heard her story, I informed just about everyone I encountered that day of her accomplishment.

It was my English teacher’s response to the news, however, that struck me more than anyone else’s.

She said that though she was proud of Malala, she could not help but feel that the young activist’s efforts would not go far. In her opinion, change is just too hard to bring about when “cultural standards are married to religion.”

But I strongly believe my teacher was wrong.

Throughout high school, I have been called a feminist.

This nickname has neither been accompanied by ridicule nor support. It instead has been used by grinning male peers who wanted to categorize and maybe even insult me.

Some days they would succeed in making me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I would find myself questioning my courage and beliefs, uncertain as to whether or not I should accept the title. One too many times I gave into peer pressure and renounced my association with the movement. I guess after already being called a “nerd” and an “overachiever” because of my grades and extracurriculars, I just wasn’t looking for another identifier.

Those who deemed me a feminist were also the ones who misinterpreted the club I founded at my school. The Archbishop McCarthy HS Girl Up Club is not a group whose purpose is to proclaim girls are better than boys, as many have assumed, but rather a chapter of the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up Campaign which is dedicated to raising funds and awareness for girls in developing countries.

As a Girl Up club leader and admirer of fearless females like Malala and Emma Watson, I have come to realize that I should never be ashamed of being an advocate for girls’ rights or, for that matter, of being a girl.

Moreover, feminism is not a bad thing and does not deserve the negative connotation most people give it.

In a recent speech, Watson, the Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, reminded her distinguished audience that the true definition of feminism is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.”

Thus, what is so wrong about wanting males and females to have equivalent importance in society?

And why must this equality be so impossible to achieve as my English teacher claims?

Call me overly optimistic or naive if you will, but has our world not overcome discrimination of religious groups, wars fought over religious ideals, and holocausts caused by religious differences?

I have hope that we can altogether tackle gender inequality because this issue is above all not one of religion. Rather, it is a rift between the sexes, which can be closed if both choose to face one another and move forward.