The life of Malala

1. Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997, in the Swat Valley, Pakistan.
For years her father, an education activist, ran a learning institution, in fact the school
was a big part of Malala’s family.
In 2007 the situation in the Swat Valley rapidly changed. The Taliban began to control
the territory
Cultural activities were prohibited for Girls and they were banned from attending school.
Determined to go to school and with a firm belief in her right to an education, when
Malala was 11, she started to blog anonymously on the BBC Urdu. She wrote about her
life under Taliban rule, and about her desire to go to school.
After three years, she and her father became known throughout Pakistan for their
determination to give Pakistani girls access to a free quality education.
Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Prize in
2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.
But, not everyone supported; in fact, on the morning of October 9, 2012, 15-year-old
Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban when she was going to school.
She was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital and later in Birmingham, England;
where, after many weeks of treatment and therapy, Malala was able to begin attending
school.
On October 8, 2013 she published her first book, an autobiography entitled “I Am
Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” and two
days after, in recognition of her work, the European Parliament awarded Malala the
prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Thanks to the Malala Fund, the organization she co-founded with her father, Malala
travelled to Jordan, Kenya and Nigeria to spread her campaign and take it around the
world.
In October 2014, at age 17, Malala became the youngest person to receive Nobel Peace
Prize.
Currently residing in Birmingham, Through the Malala Fund and with her own voice,
Malala Yousafzai remains a symbol of hope for all the girls who can’t go to school.