The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly Friday to 17-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban, and to India’s Kailash Satyarthi for their championing of children’s rights.
Malala, the youngest Nobel laureate, heard the news while in class at her school in Birmingham, England, where she moved from Pakistan to receive life-saving treatment two years ago.
Malala, who had fought for years for the right of girls to education in her strictly Muslim home region, leapt to global fame after the Taliban tried to gun her down in October 2012.
She was known for her activism for rights to education, especially in the Swat Valley, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.
In early 2009 Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban occupation, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls in the Swat Valley.
The following summer, a NYT documentary by journalist filmed her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu.
On the afternoon of October 9 2012, Malala’s life changed. While boarding her school bus in the northwest Pakistani district of Swat. A gunman asked for Malala by name, then pointed a Colt 45 at her and fired three shots. One bullet hit the left side of Malala’s forehead, traveling under her skin the length of her face and then into her shoulder.
She fought through and now lives to see the prestigious peace prize. Her campaign, the Nobel committee said, has been carried out “under the most dangerous circumstances.”
“Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education,” the committee said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called Malala the “pride” of his country.
“She has made her countrymen proud. Her achievement is unparalleled and unequalled. Girls and boys of the world should take the lead from her struggle and commitment,” he told AFP in a statement.
The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjoern Jagland, said Malala’s youth was not a factor in awarding the prize.
“Our consideration has been to highlight the young who have stood up…and the old who have worked for years against child labour and for children’s rights,” he said.
“We have noticed that she has received a long line of other prizes. The most important thing in the fight against extremism is to give young people hope,” he added.
Since her brush with death, Malala has become an international star. She received a standing ovation in July 2013 for an address to the United Nations General Assembly in which she vowed she would never be silenced.