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Malala YousafzaiPakistani schoolgirl, Taliban victim
Date of Birth: 12.07.1997
Country:  Pakistan |
Content:
Biography of Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl, is a human rights activist advocating for the accessibility of education for women worldwide. She was severely injured in 2012 by militants from the terrorist organization Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan for her activism. Yousafzai is also the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (2014).
Early Life and Activism
In early 2009, at the age of 11, Yousafzai gained global recognition through her blog written for the BBC. In her blog, she detailed her life under Taliban rule, their attempt to control the Swat Valley, and her views on the development of education for girls. Later that year, the Pakistani military launched a full-scale operation against the militants, resulting in the expulsion of the Taliban from the Swat Valley. Yousafzai's blog earned her the first place in the annual Pakistan Youth Peace Prize for her account of these events.
In 2012, Yousafzai attended a summer school organized by the International Marxist Tendency in Swat. On October 9, 2012, while returning home from school in a school bus, Yousafzai's bus was stopped by masked gunmen. One of the militants entered the bus and asked the children to identify Yousafzai. When her identity was confirmed, the Taliban gunman shot her. The bullet passed through her head, neck, and shoulder, injuring two other girls who were sitting behind her. Yousafzai was rushed to a military hospital in Peshawar in critical condition. She remained in a coma with slim chances of recovery. A group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who attempted to kill her.
When Yousafzai's condition stabilized, the Pakistani government arranged for her to be airlifted to the United Kingdom. She received medical treatment at a hospital in Birmingham. Her father stated that she would return to Pakistan after completing her rehabilitation in the UK. On October 16, 2012, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that Yousafzai would be awarded the Star of Courage for "speaking out against the tyrannical position of the Taliban on education for women." The award was presented to her personally by Pakistan's High Commissioner in the UK, Syed Ibne Abbas, on March 24, 2013.
Later Life and Achievements
On January 4, 2013, Yousafzai was discharged from the hospital. On July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday, she delivered a speech at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. On October 8, 2013, her autobiography titled "I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban," co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb, was published in the UK and the US. In the same interview commenting on the book's release, a representative of the Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, stated in an interview with the Pakistani newspaper The Daily Nation: "If we get another chance, we will definitely kill her. Islam forbids killing women, but an exception can be made for those who support the infidels in their war against our religion." The book was translated into four languages of India in 2014: Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, and Tamil. In 2015, the book "I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" was published in Russian by Azbuka-Atticus Publishers. The audiobook, narrated by Neela Vaswani, won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Children's Album.
In 2013, Yousafzai received the Anna Politkovskaya Award and the Sakharov Prize. In 2014, she became the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize along with Kailash Satyarthi "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." At the age of 17, she became the youngest Nobel laureate in history.
On July 12, 2015, Yousafzai opened a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. In 2014, she was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center.
Yousafzai's interview with young American journalist and writer Hilde Lysiak, discussing girls' fight for free and quality education, gained widespread attention.
Education
From March 2013 to July 2017, Yousafzai attended Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham. In August 2015, she achieved 6 A* grades (equivalent to A+ in the Russian five-point grading system) and 4 A grades (equivalent to an A) in her GCSEs. She studied geography, history, mathematics, and religious studies. Yousafzai also applied to Durham University, Warwick University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. In December 2016, she interviewed at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and received an offer to study there if she achieved at least three A grades on her A-level exams. She passed four such exams and was accepted to study philosophy, politics, and economics in August 2017. In June 2020, she graduated from Oxford University.
