It was a first in the history of Nobel when Malala Yousafzai was pulled from her Chemistry class to be told that she won the prestigious Peace Prize. The press had to meet till the school ended to get her reaction on the same.
It was a first in the history of Nobel when Malala Yousafzai was pulled from her Chemistry class to be told that she won the prestigious Peace Prize. The press had to meet till the school ended to get her reaction on the same.
Malala, 17, also happens to be the youngest to win the prize.
Malala was just a normal girl who liked to study, go to school and inspire other girls to do the same until October 2012, when Taliban gunmen boarded her school bus, asked for her by name, and then shot her in the head.
Miraculously, Malala survived the attack. She was given asylum and treated in the United Kingdom. She now studies in the Edgbaston high School for Girls in Birmingham.
Since then, she has traveled across the globe speaking about the importance of girls’ education and their access to it. On her 16th birthday, she addressed the United Nations and gave an influential speech about girls’ rights. The day, July 12, was named “Malala Day” and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called her “our hero”.
The Malala Fund, which was started with her help, raises money for girls’ education worldwide.
Last year, Malala released her memoir “I am Malala” making her voice reach to the world.
While announcing her name for the award, the Nobel Committee said: “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations.”
“This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”
Malala, it should be noted, was nominated last year too but did not win the award.
This year, when she was addressing the press outside her school in Birmingham, Malala thanked her father Ziauddin for “not clipping her wings”.
“I want to thank my family, my dear mother, my dear father. My father did not give me something extra, but what he did, he did not clip my wings. I am thankful to him for letting me fly,” Malala said.
“Normally when I go and speak like this, the only issue I face is usually that the podium is taller than me,” the young winner who stood on a stool to reach the podium height at Birmingham Library joked.
“I feel honoured to be chosen as a Nobel laureate and that I have been honoured with this precious award and I am proud to be the first Pakistani, the first young person and young woman to win,” she said.
“This is not the end, this is not the end of my campaign, this is the beginning. [In Pakistan] I had two options, one was not to speak and wait to be killed and the second was to speak up and then be killed, I chose the second,” Malala finally concluded.
We wish the girl named after Pashtun heroin Malala all the best in her noble endeavour!
