Malala Yousafzai

 “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”

“I don't want to be thought of as the 'girl who was shot by the Taliban' but the 'girl who fought for education'. This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.”

These are just a couple of the many inspiring quotes from Malala Yousafzai. Known for advocating for human rights, especially the education rights for women, Malala Yousafzai was not only the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, but also the second Pakistani who ever received it. 

Malala was born on July 12th, 1997, in the Swat District of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province into a middle class family. Her family didn’t have enough money for a hospital birth so she was born at home with the help of neighbours. At her house in Mingora, she lived with her two younger brothers, parents, and two chickens. 

Photo was taken from here.
After women were banned from schools due to the Taliban takeover, Yousafzai started speaking up about education rights in around 2008. Later that year, Aamer Ahmed Khan of the BBC proposed to have a schoolgirl in Swat District blog anonymously about her life under the Taliban’s control. Her father, who was a local influential educator, failed to find such a person despite numerous attempts, so he volunteered and encouraged his own daughter Malala, while understanding the risk of being hunted by the Taliban.

On January third, 2009, Yousafzai’s first entry was published to the BBC blog. It was about the First Battle of Swat, causing the destruction of many schools in the area. In her hometown Mingora, girls were banned from schools temporarily as the Taliban had blown up close to 100 girls’ schools. Later, boys’ schools reopened, but the Taliban dropped the requirements about girls going to primary school.

Soon after that, Yousafzai spoke up against the Pakistani Taliban on the national current affairs show Capital Talk, urging immediate action to protect girl’s education rights. Three days later, the Pakistani Taliban leader lifted the ban on women’s education.

On the ninth of October, 2012, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot in a gunman’s assassination attempt in retaliation for her activism. Fortunately, Yousafzai was brought to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where she would spend 10 days in a coma before awakening. After her recovery, she devoted her life to the fight for the right to education. Later, she co-funded the Malala fund with Shiza Shahid to help people win the right to education. 

Yousafzai has taught us all that violence is never the answer, only a last resort. The true weapon of this story was speaking out. She was brave and determined, and fought against the Taliban on education rights. Despite the major obstacles, she went through them and became one of the most prominent women in Pakistan.