MALALA
Did you hear the name Malala Yousafzai before? Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. She lived in a small town where a terrorist group called the Taliban took over control. When she was a child, she wanted girls to be allowed to have an education so she became a supporter for girls’ education. Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai founded a school and she went to that school. After the Taliban began attacking girls’ schools in Swat, Malala gave a speech in Pakistan, in 2008. The title of her talk was, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” She also began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban’s threats. In order to hide her identity, she used the name Gul Makai. However, they learned that it was her. Malala became very popular on public platforms. Quite a lot of people started listening to her ideas about the rights of women. Seeing her work, they nominated her for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she also won Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.
The Taliban was not very happy about Malala and they saw her as a threat because she was raising awareness among people. Therefore, when she was travelling home from school in 2012, a Taliban gunman shot her in the head. Luckily, she survived. Following her recovery in a British hospital, Malala started touring the world speaking up for the rights for girls to receive an education. Once she told reporters that going to school, “is like walking through a magic door to your dreams”.
Malala became the youngest ever recipient of the prize and the second Pakistani to get the award. After that, she continued speaking about girls’ education rights and she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. In 2014, she was nominated again and won. She became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.