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The young girl from Swat valley in Pakistan who stood against the Taliban, Malala
Yousazai’s name is associated with bravery and action-extraordinaire. An advocate of
women’s rights and girls’ education, she is a role model to people of all age groups, the
world over. And also, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize nominee
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• Born on 12th July 1997 in Swat valley Pakistan. Life in the
beautiful Swat valley was good. Until the Taliban taking over the
region and gaining control in 2007, this paradise on earth became
a living hell. Girls were banned from attending school, and
cultural activities like dancing and watching television were
prohibited.
• But that didn’t STOP Malala. She went to school even
though she was on the Taliban’s hit list. When she was asked what
gave her the courage to do all this, she said that it was her father-
Ziauddin Yousafzai who gave encouraged her and motivated her. It
was he, who suggested to her to write to the BBC..
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 Becoming an Education Activist
• Determined to go to school and with a firm belief in her right to an education,
Malala stood up to the Taliban. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right
to education?"

• Malala says that human beings don’t realise the importance of something till it is
taken away from them. Even though the Taliban threatened her, she went to school.
Malala is a girl who always stood for what she believed in. She never gave up.
She once said that instead of waiting for the government or the militants to help
them, she decided to resolve issues on her own and do whatever she could.

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• Malala used the media and continued her public campaign for her right to go to
school. Her voice grew louder, and over the course of the next three years, she and
her father became known throughout Pakistan for their determination to give
Pakistani girls access to a free quality education. But, not everyone supported
and welcomed her campaign to bring about change in Swat.

• The Pakistani teen, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize nominee, began her career
in activism in 2009 at age 11, blogging anonymously about her life under the
Taliban. And when the Taliban began blowing up schools and forbidding girls from
going to class, she kept on writing. She began receiving death threats.

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 Attacked for Going to School

• Seated on a bus heading home from school, Malala was talking with her
friends about schoolwork. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus,
asked for Malala by name, and fired three shots at her head.

• But even a bullet couldn’t silence her. In the year since her attack, she
has healed from her wounds, and she has bloomed into an even fiercer
champion of education for girls.
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• And through it all, she remains an active target. In an interview, she was
asked about what she said to the shooter, she left him speechless when she
replied, “I would tell him how important education is and that I
would even want education for your children as well. That’s what I
want to tell you, now do what you want.” She has refused to give

in to threats and intimidation; she’s shown the world that nothing

scares terrorists like an educated girl.

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 ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2011 nomination for the International Children's Peace Prize

• 2011 Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize
• 2013 The prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought
• Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience.
• EU’s top human rights award,
• The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
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• 2013 Establishing the Malala Fund

 She launched the Malala Fund to fight for the rights of the “600 million adolescent

girls in the developing world.” She produced the book “I Am Malala” to tell her

story. She was a runner-up for Time’s person of The Year

 Today, the Malala Fund has become an organization that, through education,

empowers girls to achieve their potential and become confident and strong leader

in their own countries.

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• 2014 Nobel Peace Prize

 the great success of Malala Yousafzai’s 16 years of living isn’t

necessarily the sort of thing they hand out awards for anyway. It’s that
she made it to 16 at all.

 She is the youngest person to be nominated for the Nobel Peace

Prize.

 "This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who
want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace.
It is for those voiceless children who want change."
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• She published her first book, an autobiography entitled "I Am Malala: The Girl Who
Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban."

• In October 2015, a documentary about Yousafzai's life was released. HE NAMED ME

MALALA

• 4 Years ago she was in a hospital fighting for her life. Today she’s a leader of a global

movement.
• she didn’t get shot so she could pick up accolades. She got shot because she was saying
things the Taliban didn’t like. That she is still here and still saying them is her immense
achievement. To go on living, in spite of the odds, is a victory every day. To be heard in
the world is a towering triumph.

• “Prizes should be handed out at the finish line” And the victory of Malala Yousafzai is that
she’s just getting started. 11
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