Malala receives Nobel Peace Prize

MALALA Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for advocating women’s rights to education, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yousafzai, now a 17-year-old schoolgirl, is the youngest recipient of the prestigious award, and an education campaigner who was shot in the head by Taliban gunman in 2012.
She shares the prize with India’s Kailash Satyarthi. Both were awarded the prize for their work on promoting child rights.


“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 is to be awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education,” the jury said.

Her story ... Malala Yousafzai’s I am Malala, the girl who stood up to the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb.

The Taliban targeted Malala because of her relentless objection to the group’s regressive interpretation of Islam that limits girls’ access to education. She was returning home from school in Pakistan’s scenic Swat Valley on October 9 when the militants shot her for criticising their efforts to keep girls from getting an education.

Recovering from the shooting ... 15-year old Malala Yousafzai at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, after being shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan.

Her case won worldwide recognition, and the teen became a symbol for the struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan. In an indication of her reach, she made the shortlist for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2012.
Pakistani doctors removed a bullet that entered her head and headed toward her spine. The decision to send Malala to Britain was taken in consultation with her family.
Pakistan also appointed Malala’s father, Ziauddin, as its education attache in Birmingham. The position, with an initial three-year commitment, virtually guarantees that Malala will remain in Britain for now.
Since the shooting, she has been travelling the world, speaking about education and she has attracted millions of followers who support her.
She won the EU’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize last year and was previously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Royal meeting ... Malala Yousafzai has been announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize today in Oslo, Norway. Here she gave a a copy of her book to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 

The Pakistani army arrested the gunmen who tried to kill Yousafzai in the country’s restive northwest in September this year.
The detention of the 10 men, a joint operation involving army, police and intelligence agencies, came as part of the Pakistani military’s ongoing offensive against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other extremist outfits.
The plan to kill her came from network’s current leader Maulana Fazlullah.
Satyarthi, 60, has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” the Nobel committee said.
The Nobel Committee said it “regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.”

Saving children ... Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian anti-child labour activist.
 ld give the prize to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

The committee has interpreted those instructions differently over time, widening the concept of peace work to include efforts to improve human rights, fight poverty and clean up the environment.

Fighting for children ... Kailash Satyarthi, third from left, was the Indian coordinator of the Global March against child labour.

The five-member committee picked the winner out of a record 278 nominations that included former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and Pope Francis.
The committee has come under fire in recent years for selecting winners such as US President Barack Obama in 2009, but the million dollar cash award is still considered one of the highest honours one can receive in the world.