She was born in 1997 in Pakistan. She is an education and women’s rights activist and was almost killed in an assassination attempt last year. She is one of the most famous teenagers on earth and one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is also a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Who is this 16 year-old?
Malala Yousafzai began blogging for BBC News at age 12 under a pseudonym, depicting her daily activities under Taliban rule and her views on education for girls. Her profile began to rise when she started appearing on television to publicly advocate for female education. She had earlier appeared in a documentary by New York Times. As Malala became more popular, she started receiving death threats. In fact, death threats against her were published in newspapers.
Last year at age 15, a Taliban gunman boarded Malala’s school bus in northwestern Pakistan, shot her and two other girls in an attempt to kill her. The bullet went through her head and neck, and lodged in her shoulder. The Taliban, by the incident, wanted to show what would happen to anyone who had the courage to stand up for education, freedom and self-determination, particularly for girls and women. Malala was flown to the UK for treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and on February 2nd, 2013, she underwent a five-hour operation to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing. The Taliban has threatened to kill her if she returns to Pakistan.
Today, a global campaign in Malala’s name, spearheaded by the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, a former prime minister of Britain, is already on in support of what she stands for. The main focus of the campaign is that no children will be left out of school by 2015. On her 16th birthday on July 12th 2013, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. The UN called the event “Malala Day”. Hear this extract from her speech at the UN: Continue reading “The Sixteen Year-Old Girl Who Has Impacted the World”
