Malala Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Pakistan. She was given her first name Malala (meaning "grief-stricken") after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan.
Malala’s father was a teacher and was determined to give her the same opportunities that boys could have so he ran a girls’ school in our village. Malala loved school But everything changed when the Taliban took control of our town in Swat Valley. The extremists banned many things and they said girls could no longer go to school.
Malala's father decided to ask a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life there it was considered too dangerous by their families. Finally, he suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala.
Yousafzai started speaking about education rights when her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?", Yousafzai audience started to grow as the newspapers, television channels and even New York times (Adam B. Ellick) covered her story. leader Maulana Fazlulla announced on his FM radio station that he was lifting the ban on women's education, and girls would be allowed to attend school until exams were held on 17 March, but they had to wear burqas. Girls' schools reopened On 25 February,
In May, the Pakistani Army moved into the region to regain control during the Second Battle of Swat. Mingora was evacuated and Yousafzai's family was displaced and separated.
In October 2011, She Malala was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by activist Desmond Tutu, a South African activist. She was the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award. The announcement said, "Malala dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to go to school.
On 19 December 2011, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani awarded her the National Peace Award for Youth. As Yousafzai became more recognised. the level of hate was rising too and she began to receive a lot of death threats.
On 9 October 2012, a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai as she rode home on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Yousafzai was 15 years old at the time. According to reports, a masked gunman shouted "Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all", and, upon being identified, Yousafzai was shot with one bullet, which travelled 18 inches from the side of her left eye, through her neck and landed in her shoulder. Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Yousafzai "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity", adding that if she survived, the group would stop there target, she would be targetted again. "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets." That's what answered the father of Malala.
After this attack, Yousafzai became even more famous internationnally. human rights organizations and feminist groups followed her recovery. Yousafzai became a prominent activist for the right to education. Based out of Birmingham, she founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organisationand In 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Aged 17 she was the youngest-ever to receive that prize.
The murder attempt received worldwide media coverage and produced an outpouring of sympathy and anger. Protests against the shooting were held in several Pakistani cities the day after the attack, and over 2 million people signed the Right to Education campaign's petition.
The petition contained 3 demands: it ask to a plan to deliver education for every child. it ask to outlaw discrimination against girls- it ask from international organisations to ensure the world's 61 million out-of-school children are in education by the end of 2015. It will lead to ratification of the first Right to Education Bill in Pakistan
The American actress Angelina Jolie gave an answer to all that hate in the article she wrote about explaining the event to her children and answering questions like "Why did those men think they needed to kill Malala?".
And we all know, now, why they were so afraid of a little girl.
To know more about the subject:
Bush, Laura (10 October 2012). "A girl's courage challenges us to act". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
Madonna Strips For Malala Yousafzai, Dedicates Song To Young Pakistani Woman Shot By Taliban". The Huffington Post. 15 October 2012. Archived from the original on 2 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
Pakistani teen still critical, Obama calls attack tragic". Yahoo News. Indo Asian News Service. 11 October 2012. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
UN chief strongly condemns 'heinous and cowardly' attack on Pakistani schoolgirl". UN News Service. 10 October 2012. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
Malala Yousafzai: Pakistani girl shot by Taliban to be treated in Birmingham hospital that treats wounded soldiers". The Daily Telegraph. 15 October 2012. Archived from the original on 27 March 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
van Gilder Cooke, Sonia (23 October 2012). "Pakistani Heroine: How Malala Yousafzai Emerged from Anonymity". Time. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
Peer, Basharat (10 October 2012). "The Girl Who Wanted To Go To School". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
Malala Yousafzai becomes youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner". The Express Tribune. 10 October 2014. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
