Born in 1997, Malala is a human rights activist for female education in
her native Swat Valley in Pakistan, where the Taliban has banned girls from
attending school on several occasions.
In early 2009 when she was just 12 years old, she started a
blog that was focused on her life under the Taliban occupation and her views,
advocating for girls being able to get an education in Swat Valley. In 2012 she
was shot in the head 3 times by a Taliban gunman who had asked her name while
she was boarding her school bus. Luckily she survived. At the time of the
attack, Malala was well known to the Taliban but it was the assassination
attempt that sparked an outpour of national and international support for her.
In 2013 she was named one of the “100 Most Influential People In The World” by
Time magazine. She was the winner of Pakistan's first National Youth Peace
Prize, and the recipient of the 2013 Sakharov Prize. In July 2013 she spoke at
the headquarters of the United Nations to call for worldwide access to
education. in 2014, she became the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
for her work towards ending the suppression of children and young people and
for her struggle towards the right of all children to education. At age 17, Malala is the youngest-ever Nobel Prize
laureate.
“I speak not for myself but for those without voice… those
who have fought for their rights… their right to live in peace, their right to
be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to
be educated.”
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Women
