October 10, 2014

Malala Yousafzai, a teenaged Pakistani activist who survived an assassination attempt by militant Sunni Islamists, is one of two advocates for the rights of children named as winners of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Also honored was Kailash Satyarthi of India, founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Children Mission), which works to end child labor and child trafficking (the selling and buying of children for financial gain). In announcing this year’s Peace Prize winners, the Nobel Committee praised the two activists “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”

Malala Yousafzai, 17, is the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. (Claude Truong-Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons)

At 17, Yousafzai is the youngest winner of the Peace Prize. She became an international advocate for the education of girls and women while recovering from a nearly fatal gunshot wound to the head in 2012. Yousafzai became a target of the Taliban, a miltant political group, in 2009, after she began writing a blog (web log) for the Urdu-language website of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In the blog, she reported on the repressive activity of the Taliban in the Swat district, an area of northwestern Pakistan, which had come under the control of the group. The Taliban had banned girls in Swat from attending school and forced many schools to close. In mid-2009, the Pakistani military launched a campaign that drove the Taliban from power in Swat. After that, some schools reopened. However, the Taliban remained active in the region. On October 9, 2012, two Taliban gunmen boarded Yousafzai’s school bus and opened fire on her. Two other schoolgirls were also wounded in the attack. Yousafzai was flown to the United Kingdom for medical treatment and has remained in that country. Despite the international outcry against the Taliban’s attack on Yousafzai, the group vowed to continue their attempts on her life.

Kailash Satyarthi, 60, won praise from the Nobel Committe for “showing great personal courage” in heading “various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.” In an interview with Nobel officials, Satyarthi said, “First of all, everyone must acknowledge and feel that child slavery still exists in the world, in its ugliest face and form. And this is an evil … which is unacceptable and which must go. That sense of recognition must be developed first of all. And secondly there is a need … of higher amount of corporate engagement, and the engagement of the public towards it. So, everybody has a responsibility to save and protect the children on this planet.” To call more attention to the problem of child labor, Satyarthi’s organization is planning the first annual End Child Slavery Week, which will be held from November 19 to November 25. According to the Nobel Committee, there are an estimated 168 million child laborers in the world today.

Additional World Book articles:

• Nobel Peace Prizes (table)
• Schooling
• Women’s movement

July 12, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban, spoke today at the United Nations (UN) on the occasion of  “Malala Day.” She told a specially convened youth assembly that books and pens scare such extremist groups as the Taliban. A Taliban gunman shot Malala in the head on a school bus in October 2012 because of her campaign for girls’ rights, including the right to an education.

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai spoke today to a special youth assembly in the plenary chamber at the United Nations.  (© Mario Tama, Getty Images)

“They are afraid of women,” Malala told the forum, noting that the Taliban’s attack had only made her more resolute: “Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, courage and fervor was born. . . I speak not for myself but for those without a voice,” she continued, stating that she is fighting for the rights of women because “they are the ones who suffer the most.”

According to the UN Statistics Division, fully one-quarter of all young women worldwide have not completed primary school. Malala’s native Pakistan ranks among the lowest in terms of female literacy and the enrollment of girls in school.

After Malala presented UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with a petition demanding universal education, he addressed the special assembly: “She is calling on us to keep our promises, invest in young people and put education first.” He credited Malala with bringing the issue of women’s education to worldwide attention. Her petition bore more than 3 million signatures.

After being shot, Malala Yousafzai was flown from Pakistan to the United Kingdom for treatment. She now lives in Birmingham, England.

Additional World Book articles:

• Pakistan 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Fifty Years of Defending Human Rights for All (a special report)

January 4, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, was discharged yesterday from a British hospital where she has been undergoing treatment since October 15. According to the hospital staff, she is well enough to be treated as an outpatient until she returns for surgery in several weeks.

Taliban gunmen targeted Malala for “promoting secularism” through her championing of girls’ education. She had kept a diary for the BBC’s Urdu service in which she had also highlighted the atrocities carried out by the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat valley.

The Pakistani government is paying for Malala’s treatment and for the upkeep of her family in the United Kingdom. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who visited her in the hospital in December, described her as a “remarkable girl and a credit to Pakistan.”

The Taliban, a militant Islamic political group, has declared its intention of targeting Malala again. The Taliban gained control of most of Afghanistan in the mid-1990′s and sought to turn it into an Islamic state. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the United States and its allies launched a military campaign against the Taliban and drove it out of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the terrorist attacks, had been living in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. Many Taliban members crossed the border to regroup in Pakistan, where they have frequently clashed with police and government troops. Taliban forces continue to battle NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Additional World Book articles:

• Terrorism
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)