Malala Yousafzai: Nobel Peace Prize winner

Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, at the age of 17. Apart from being the youngest ever recipient of the prize, she is surely one of the most deserving.

Malala Yousafzai

The Nobel Committee awarded the 2014 Peace Prize jointly to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people". The latter name is probably not all that well known, but he is certainly a deserving recipient for his lifetime’s work in raising awareness of the problem of child labour, particularly in his native India.

However, the headlines for Malala are also well deserved. This is a young girl who, at the age of 12, was boarding a bus to go to school in her home province of Swat in Pakistan when a Taliban gunman fired three shots at her, one of which hit her in the head.

Malala survived and made a near-complete recovery, largely thanks to the sterling efforts of surgeons at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, England. The deliberate attack on her led to worldwide condemnation of her attackers, not least for their desire to murder a young girl simply because she was determined to go to school and was campaigning locally for the right to be educated to be extended to all girls.

The Taliban continued to threaten Malala and her family, who were subsequently given permanent residence in the United Kingdom.

Since her recovery, Malala has campaigned ceaselessly for the right of all children, everywhere, to be given a proper education. She has been given platforms to speak in countries all over the world, been feted by Presidents and Premiers, and on 12^th July 2013 addressed a session of the United Nations.

She is undoubtedly the world’s most famous teenager, having been included on lists of the “world’s most influential people”. She has received honours and plaudits from many countries, but she is probably most happy about the fact that the government of her native country has now introduced legislation in favour of girls’ education.

Few people would deny that she thoroughly deserved the Nobel Peace Prize – not for being a victim but for refusing to be bowed by her experience and indeed going much, much further in her unstinted campaign to achieve justice for young people. As a highly articulate young woman who speaks her mind and “tells it how it is” she is someone who is listened to and is making a real difference as well as setting a positive example that others are following.  

© John Welford