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Malala Yousafzai, born on July 12, 1997, is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate. She is mostly known for her human rights advocacy, specializing on education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan.
She always felt inspired by her father and his thoughts and humanitarian work. He was a teacher and ran a school for girls. It became particularly difficult to continue this work after the Taliban took control of their town in Swat Valley. The extremists not only banned girls from attending school but also many other things, such as owning a television or playing music, and enforced harsh punishments for those who defied their orders.
In early 2009, when Malala was only 11-12, she wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC Urdu detailing her life struggles during the Taliban occupation. She rose in prominence after a journalist (Adam B. Ellick) decided to make a New York Times documentary about her life. She gave many interviews in print as well as on television.
On 9 October 2012, while on a bus from school, Malala and two of her girl friends were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her activism. Malala was hit in the head with a bullet and only woke up a couple of days later, in a different country.
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This incident did not silence her and she continued on in her advocacy. On 12 July 2013 (on her 16th birthday), Malala's first public speech since the attack took place. She spoke at the United Nations to call for a worldwide access to education, leading the first ever Youth Takeover of the UN, with an audience of over 500 young education advocates from around the world. Because of this and her highly successful speech, the UN decided to call 12 July as "Malala Day".
In regards to that, she said: "Malala day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who has raised their voice for their rights."
In 2014, with the help of her father, she established the Malala Fund, which is a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses. For her continued effort and recognition of her work, she received a Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and, at the age of 17, she became the youngest Nobel laureate.
Last year [2020] she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. She's also (co)written many books describing her journey, such as I Am Malala, We Are Displaced and Malala's Magic Pencil.
Here you can find a review of her book, I Am Malala, which was filmed by her university friend, fellow advocate for the right to education, and The 2021 Diana Award recipient, Vee Kativhu.
