Globally Known Education Activist Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is a globally known education activist who was born in Mingora, Pakistan on July 12, 1997. Her hometown was a popular touristic place in the first few years of her life. However, the area changed a lot as the Taliban tried to take control. In those years she was studying at a school that her father founded. The Taliban began attacking girls’schoolsin Swat. Malala decided to give a speech and she did in September, 2008. The title of her talk was, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?”

Yousafzai started blogging for BBC in early 2009 about living under the Taliban’s threat. She used a nickname to hide her identity, but she was revealed to be the BBC blogger in December of that year. She continued to speak out about her right and the rights of all women in different public platforms. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. In the same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.

Malala and her family learned that The Taliban had issued a death threat against her because of her activism. On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala was on her way home when she was shot by a masked gunman in the left side of her head. Because of this shooting, first she was taken to the military hospital in Peshawar, then she was transferred to Birmingham, England. Her recovery took a considerable amount of time, but in the end, in March 2013,she was able to begin attending school in Birmingham.

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by Taliban is her autobiography that wasreleased in October 2013. It became an international bestseller.

She was first nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2013, but she didn’t win. Then, in March 2014 she was nominated again for the prize and in October 2014, at the age of 17, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize.

Adapted from Biography’s website.