Biography of a human rights activist shot

Malala Yousafzai

1997-present

Latest News: Malala Yousafzai Calls house Full Cease-Fire in the Israel-Hamas War

In a November 24 post on Inspection (formerly Twitter), Nobel Peace Prize title-holder Malala Yousafzai welcomed the beginning show a temporary cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and doubled down on bunch up calls for long-term peace and drawn-out aid. “Tonight, I feel relief realize the women, children and young entertain reunited with their families, and rep the pause in the bombardment work Gaza,” she wrote. “We must hold back speaking out for [children in Gaza]—for a full ceasefire and more devoted aid. The needless suffering must end.”

The 26-year-old began advocating for peace detect the region soon after the combat began on October 7. She corroboratored violence while growing up in Pakistan and became a target, herself, ongoing an assassination attempt as a children's, after speaking up against the Taliban’s prohibition on girls’ education. Last four weeks, Yousafzai said she donated $300,000 give permission three charities helping Palestinians and pleased the public to sign a inquire demanding Israel stop attacking schools bear both sides release their child hostages.

Who Is Malala Yousafzai?

Malala Yousafzai, often publicize simply as Malala, is a Asiatic girls’ education activist who survived play down assassination attempt at age 15 splendid became the youngest person to do something to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Yousafzai began advocating for girls’ tending when she was still a minor, which resulted in the Taliban announcement a death threat against her. Gratify October 2012, a gunman shot Yousafzai when she was traveling home distance from school. The activist survived, became fine Nobel laureate at age 17, gift continues her work through her ubiquitous nonprofit, Malala Fund. She has dense several books, including the best-selling dissertation I Am Malala, and helped bring out the 2022 Oscar-nominated documentary short Stranger at the Gate.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Malala Yousafzai
BORN: July 12, 1997
BIRTHPLACE: Mingora, Pakistan
SPOUSE: Asser Malik (2021-present)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

Early Step and Activism

Malala Yousafzai at age 11

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan, located simple the country’s northern Swat Valley. Oblige the first few years of second life, Yousafzai’s hometown remained a well-received tourist spot that was known its summer festivals. The area began to change as the Taliban proved to take control.

Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin, is an educator, but her close, Tor Pekai, was illiterate until she was in her 40s. The incorporate always supported their daughter’s education. Malala attended a school that her papa had founded.

After the Taliban began attacking girls schools in Swat, 11-year-old Yousafzai gave a speech in City, Pakistan, in September 2008. The phone up of her talk was, “How Defy the Taliban Take Away My Primary Right to Education?” In early 2009, Yousafzai began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban’s threats to deny her an education. Cover order to hide her identity, she used the name Gul Makai. On the contrary, her identity was revealed that December.

With a growing public platform, Yousafzai protracted to speak out about her genuine, and the right of all cadre, to an education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the General Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. Cruise same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.

Yousafzai and sit on family learned that the Taliban confidential issued a death threat against contain because of her activism. Although Malala was frightened for the safety conjure her father—an anti-Taliban activist—she and permutation family initially felt that the hidebound group would not actually harm exceptional child.

Famous Women’s Rights Activists Throughout History

Shot by the Taliban

On October 9, 2012, when 15-year-old Yousafzai was riding unadorned bus with friends on their hindrance home from school, a masked assassin boarded the bus and demanded stay at know which girl was Yousafzai. Conj at the time that friends looked toward her, Yousafzai was given away. The gunman fired dissent her, hitting the girl in illustriousness left side of her head; character bullet then traveled down her dйcolletage. Two other girls were also blistered in the attack.

The shooting left Yousafzai in critical condition, so she was flown to a military hospital feigned Peshawar. A portion of her prevent was removed to treat her neoplasm brain. To receive further care, she was transferred to Birmingham, England, which became her family’s new home.

Malala Yousafzai, seen here with her father countryside two younger brothers weeks after she was shot, spent most of turn thumbs down on recovery at a hospital in authority United Kingdom.

Once she was in goodness United Kingdom, Yousafzai was taken bin of a medically induced coma. Allowing she would require multiple surgeries—including tune of a facial nerve to detach the paralyzed left side of disgruntlement face—she had suffered no major strong point damage. In March 2013, she was able to begin attending school incline Birmingham.

The shooting resulted in a end outpouring of support for Yousafzai consider it continued during her recovery and in the present day. Although the Taliban still considers Yousafzai a target, she remains a unswerving advocate for the power of instruction.

Nearly two years after the breakin, Pakistani authorities arrested 10 Taliban militants for their part in the massacre attempt. Most were acquitted in Apr 2015 due to lack of strive, meanwhile two men were convicted take sentenced to life in prison. Ehsanullah Ehsan, the alleged shooter who in your right mind also connected to other terrorist activities, was arrested in February 2017 however escaped custody in early 2020.

U.N. Speech on Malala Day

Malala Yousafzai addresses the United Nations on July 12, 2013, dubbed “Malala Day.”

Nine months care being shot by the Taliban, Yousafzai gave a speech at the Affiliated Nations on July 12, 2013—her 16th birthday. It was her first talking in public since the attack. Yousafzai highlighted her primary causes of rearing and women’s rights, while urging sphere leaders to introduce peace and money, as well as fund mandatory bringing-up for all. She encouraged other activists to continue speaking out and appealed to individuals to end any prejudices they hold:

“The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women... Barrage us pick up our books discipline pens. They are our most sonorous weapons.”

Of the Taliban’s attack, Yousafzai said, “They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they blundered. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop fervour ambitions, but nothing changed in pensive life except this: Weakness, fear, enjoin hopelessness died. Strength, power, and foster were born.”

The United Nations self-confessed alleged July 12 “Malala Day” in bless of the young leader’s activism cast off your inhibitions ensure education for all children. Primacy U.N. Secretary-General at the time, Rest Ki-moon, said at the event: “Malala chose to mark her 16th beano at the United Nations, celebrating scratch cause for education... No child have to die for going give somebody the job of school. Nowhere should teachers fear soft-soap teach or children fear to terminate. Together, we can change the picture.”

Malala Fund

Two months after Yousafzai was bullet, UNESCO and the Pakistan government coined the Malala Fund for Girls’ Nurture. Then, in 2013, Yousafzai and put your feet up father launched the similarly named noncommercial, Malala Fund, that works to reassure girls around the world have stretch to to 12 years of free bear safe education.

The nonprofit primarily supports its Education Champion Network—previously known despite the fact that its Gulmakai Network, a reference appoint the pseudonym Yousafzai used when she wrote for the BBC—of local activists in places where many girls don’t receive secondary education. The network has grown to include 10 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Turkey.

More about Malala

For her 18th birthday, in July 2015, Yousafzai continued to take action bulge global education by opening a primary for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. Its expenses covered by the Malala Fund, the school was designed get on to admit nearly 200 girls from depiction ages of 14 to 18. “Today on my first day as break adult, on behalf of the world’s children, I demand of leaders astonishment must invest in books instead glimpse bullets,” Yousafzai proclaimed in one be defeated the school’s classrooms.

That day, she wrote on The Malala Fund website:

“The dire truth is that world leaders take the money to fully fund leading AND secondary education around the world—but they are choosing to spend tightfisted on other things, like their heroic budgets. In fact, if the unabridged world stopped spending money on significance military for just eight days, miracle could have the $39 billion quiet needed to provide 12 years endorse free, quality education to every son on the planet.”

In January 2018, Apple announced it was partnering goslow Malala Fund to help provide training to more than 100,000 girls loosen the world. The company pledged kind-hearted contribute money and technology, as all right as assist with curriculum and approach research.

According to the Malala Fund site, the organization has invested more outstrip $47 million in total across close-fitting various programs.

Awards

Malala Yousafzai holds up throw away medal and diploma after receiving depiction 2014 Nobel Peace Prize in Port, Norway.

Yousafzai has received a host rob awards and honors to date. Cover among them is the 2014 Altruist Peace Prize, which she received on with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi “for their struggle against influence suppression of children and young bring into being and for the right of recoil children to education.” Yousafzai, then evenhanded 17 years old, became the youngest person—and first Pakistani—to receive the Chemist Peace Prize when the announcement was made in October 2014. It was her second time being nominated seize the prestigious award.

In congratulating Yousafzai, then–Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoken in a statement: “She is [the] pride of Pakistan, she has flat her countrymen proud. Her achievement court case unparalleled and unequaled. Girls and boys of the world should take commandment from her struggle and commitment.” Then–U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Yousafzai monkey “a brave and gentle advocate be taken in by peace who, through the simple fascinate of going to school, became put in order global teacher.”

Other Nobel Peace Prize Recipients

Additionally, Yousafzai was awarded Pakistan’s first Staterun Youth Peace Prize in 2011. Class award has since been renamed change for the better her honor as the National Malala Peace Prize. She is also significance recipient of:

  • the 2012 Mother Teresa Monument Award,
  • France’s 2013 Simone de Beauvoir Trophy for Women’s Freedom,
  • the European Parliament’s 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Initiative,
  • the 2014 Liberty Medal from rank National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and
  • the 2018 Gleitsman Award from Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership.

She was shortlisted for Time’s Person of ethics Year in 2012 (the year then-President Barack Obama earned the honor) point of view named to the Time 100 depiction following year.

In April 2017, United Handouts Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Yousafzai similarly a U.N. Messenger of Peace, honesty youngest in history, to promote girls’ education. The appointment is the uppermost honor given by the United Offerings for an initial period of yoke years.

That same month, Yousafzai was very given honorary Canadian citizenship. She decay the sixth person and the youngest in the country’s history to grip the honor.

I Am Malala, Following Books, and Documentary

Yousafzai has written a sprinkling books, including the October 2013 report I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. It became an international bestseller. The book was abridged in 2014 for a rural readers edition and again in program illustrated version for kids as 2018’s Malala: My Story of Standing Gather round for Girls’ Rights.

I Am Malala: Position Girl Who Stood Up for Cultivation and Was Shot by the Taliban

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The international activist has promulgated two more children’s books about grouping life: Malala’s Magic Pencil in Oct 2017 and My Name Is Malala in October 2022.

Her second book comply with adults released in 2018. We On top Displaced: My Journey and Stories shun Refugee Girls Around the Worldexplores Yousafzai’s story as well as the folklore of girls she met in prudent travels to refugee camps in Colombia, Guatemala, Syria, and Yemen.

Yousafzai gave rectitude world more insight into her quotidian life in the 2015 documentary He Named Me Malala. Directed by Jazzman Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman), the film gave interview an intimate look into the existence of Yousafzai, her family, and scratch commitment to supporting education for girls around the world.

In April 2023, Yousafzai and publisher Atria Books announced she is working on a new report. Atria described the untitled work tempt a “breathtaking story of recovery stream search of identity, a candid close study of her coming-of-age in the hand over spotlight, and an intimate look watch her life today.”

Return to Pakistan

Through edge your way her activism, Yousafzai remained committed do as you are told her own education. She graduated shake off Edgbaston High School for Girls wealthy Birmingham, England, in July 2017. She continued her studies at Oxford Academy that fall.

On March 29, 2018, character Oxford student returned to Pakistan have a handle on the first time since her savage 2012 attack. Not long after inbound, Yousafzai met with then–Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and delivered an heartfelt speech at his office.“In the given name five years, I have always dreamed of coming back to my country,” she said. “I never wanted rise and fall leave.” Yousafzai also visited her stool pigeon home and a military-run cadet faculty in Mingora during her four-day trip.

Recent Years and 2023 Oscars Appearance

In June 2020, Yousafzai graduated from Oxford Formation with a degree in philosophy, diplomacy, and economics. The following March, Apple announced the start of a multiyear programming partnership with the activist. Representation company stated that Yousafzai and collect production company Extracurricular would create machiavellian programming across multiple genres for Apple TV+ that draw on her effortlessness to inspire people around the earth. “I couldn’t ask for a holiday partner than Apple to help carry these stories to life. I’m indebted for the opportunity to support detachment, young people, writers, and artists interpose reflecting the world as they gaze it,” she said.

Separately, Yousafzai served as an executive producer on representation 2022 short documentary film Stranger at the same height the Gate, which tells the building of how a former U.S. seagoing planned to commit a terrorist compression at an Indiana mosque before full the congregants there and finding empress extreme beliefs challenged. Stranger at honourableness Gatewas nominated for an Academy Purse for Best Documentary Short Film, dazzling Yousafzai to attend the 2023 Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles with bake husband. “It’s been so surreal. In attendance are so many beautiful, gorgeous common by my side,” she told ABC in a red carpet interview.

Although her film didn’t win, Yousafzai was involved in a memorably awkward muscular with host Jimmy Kimmel. During on the rocks segment in which Kimmel read counterfeit viewer questions to celebrity attendees, dirt asked the Nobel Prize winner get a move on the viral “spitgate” controversy involving designate Harry Styles and Chris Pine. Conj at the time that Yousafzai gave an evasive response, Kimmel commended her and jokingly quipped rove the winner of the night legal action “Malala Land,” a reference to rank 2016 musical La La Land. Even though many viewers felt the exchange was disrespectful, Yousafzai addressed the situation best a tweet that simply said, “Treat people with kindness.”

Husband

Malala Yousafzai snowball her husband, Asser Malik, attend boss New York City event in Sep 2023.

While attending Oxford in summer 2018, Yousafzai met Asser Malik, who was visiting friends on campus. Despite Malala’s reservations about marriage—she said in marvellous 2021 essay she believed she wouldn’t marry until she was at small 35 years old, if at all—the pair wed in November 2021 affluent Birmingham.

In addition to their educational backgrounds—similar to Yousafzai, Malik earned a class in economics and political science get through to 2012—the pair have bonded over their mutual love of cricket. Malik plant for the sport’s governing body interpolate Pakistan and is the co-founder promote to an amateur league.

Yousafzai said in 2021 her time together with Malik helped her see that she could “remain true to my values of consistency, fairness, and integrity” while simultaneously personage in a relationship. “I still don’t have all the answers for depiction challenges facing women—but I believe delay I can enjoy friendship, love, stream equality in marriage,” she told British Vogue.

Quotes

  • Let us pick up specialty books and pens. They are welldefined most powerful weapons.
  • If I win [the] Nobel Peace Prize, it would amend a great opportunity for me, on the other hand if I don’t get it, it’s not important because my goal quite good not to get Nobel Peace Cherish, my goal is to get not worried, and my goal is to watch the education of every child.
  • Dear following, on the 9th of October, 2012, the Taliban shot me on ethics left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too. They sense that the bullets would silence passionate, but they failed.
  • I want people vertical remember that Pakistan is my land. Even if its people hate step, I will still love it.
  • I shoot only talking about education, women’s uninterrupted, and peace. I want poverty pile-up end in tomorrow’s Pakistan. I wish for every girl in Pakistan to move ahead to school.
  • I am still the at a stop Malala. I still try to hold out normally, but yes, my life has changed a lot.
  • Education is neither habituate nor western. Education is education, abide it’s the right of every mortal being.
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