Historical Figure
Malala Yousafzai
b. 1997
Pakistani education activist (born 1997)
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Biography
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist, and producer of film and television. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, receiving the Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, and is the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native district, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen".
In Their Own Words (5)
I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taliban’s edict.
Malala. "I am afraid", Saturday 3 January 2009; Cited in: Malala Yousafzai: Portrait of the girl blogger, bbc.co.uk, 10 October 2012 , 2009
In a situation where a lifelong school break was being imposed upon us by the terrorists, rising up against that became very important, essential.
Malala in Interview with a Pakistani Television network, 2011-12; Cited in: The girl who wanted to go to school." The New Yorker by Basharat Peer, posted October 10, 2012 , 2010
I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.
Malala in Interview with a Pakistani Television network, 2011-12; Cited in: The girl who wanted to go to school." The New Yorker by Basharat Peer, posted October 10, 2012 , 2010
On my way from school to home I heard a man saying “I will kill you.” I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.
Malala. "I am afraid", Saturday 3 January 2009; Cited in: Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl at news.bbc.co.uk. 19 January 2009 , 2009
The content of a book holds the power of education and it is with this power that we can shape our future and change lives.
2013
Timeline
The story of Malala Yousafzai, told in moments.
Begins writing a blog for the BBC Urdu service under a pseudonym. She's 11. The Taliban have banned girls from attending school in Swat. She writes about hiding her books under her shawl on the way to class.
A Taliban gunman boards her school bus and asks for her by name. He shoots her in the head. The bullet travels through her face and lodges in her shoulder. She's 15. They airlift her to Birmingham, England, for brain surgery. She survives.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at 17. The youngest laureate in history. She splits it with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children's rights activist. At the ceremony she says: 'This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education.'
Graduates from Oxford with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. She'd applied while recovering from surgeries. The Malala Fund operates in eight countries, supporting education for girls in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and beyond.
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