Malala Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997 in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. From an early age she saw how the Taliban tried to stop girls from attending school, and at just eleven years old she began writing an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about life under their rule and the importance of education.
Her fearless advocacy made her a target. In October 2012, militants shot Malala in the head as she rode home from school. She survived and relocated to the United Kingdom for treatment, continuing her studies and activism. On her sixteenth birthday in July 2013 she addressed the United Nations, urging equal education rights for all. A year later she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recognised for her struggle for girls’ education and sharing the prize with Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi[1]. Today Malala leads the Malala Fund, supporting girls’ education around the world.
[1] NobelPrize.org biography of Malala Yousafzai.
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