Women Leaders: Malala Yousafzai
By Biography.com Editors and A+E Networks, adapted by Newsela staff on 08.05.16
Word Count 717
Malala Yousafzai pictured in 2015 Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Synopsis: Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. As a child,
she fought for girls' education. The Taliban, a violent group, opposes education for girls.
On October 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai in the head when she was riding the
bus home from school. She survived. She kept speaking out on the rights of girls to go to
school. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 when she was only 17, becoming the
youngest person ever to receive it.
A Girl In Pakistan
On July 12, 1997, Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan. For the first several
years of her life, her hometown was a popular tourist spot known for its summer festivals.
When she was 10 years old, everything changed. In 2007, the Taliban invaded the area
around her hometown and took control. The Taliban is a violent group fighting to
control Pakistan and its neighboring country, Afghanistan.
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An Advocate For Girls' Education
Yousafzai attended a school founded by her father. In 2007, the Taliban began attacking
girls' schools near her hometown. She gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in September
2008. It was called: "How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Right to Education?"
In early 2009, Yousafzai began writing for the BBC, a British news company, about the
Taliban's efforts to stop girls from getting an education. To protect herself, she used a fake
name. But her real name was discovered by December of that year.
Yousafzai became popular because of her activism. She was nominated for the
International Children's Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan's
National Youth Peace Prize.
Targeted By The Taliban
When Yousafzai was 14, the Taliban said it would kill her. But her family didn't believe that
the Taliban would actually harm a child.
On October 9, 2012, a man boarded the bus she was riding home from school. He
demanded to know which girl was Malala Yousafzai. He found her. The gunman fired at
her, hitting the left side of her head. The bullet traveled down her neck.
The shooting left her in bad shape. She was flown to a hospital. Part of her skull was
removed to help her heal. To get more care, she was flown to Birmingham, England.
After The Attack
In England, Yousafzai was forced to stay in bed. She couldn't talk with anyone. Her face
was paralyzed, which means it couldn't move. But she didn't have serious brain damage.
In March 2013, she was able to begin attending school in Birmingham.
After the shooting, Yousafzai received an outpouring of support from all over the world. On
her 16th birthday in 2013, she gave a speech at the United Nations (U.N.). The U.N. is an
organization that helps countries cooperate with each other. Yousafzai also wrote a book
about her life. The book was published in October 2013.
The Taliban still wants to kill her. Yousafzai still fights for the rights of girls and women to
get an education.
In October 2014, she won the Nobel Peace Prize, an award given every year to people
who work for world peace. At age 17, Yousafzai became the youngest person to ever
receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: “She has
made her countrymen proud. Girls and boys of the world should take the lead from her
struggle and commitment."
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"Books Instead Of Bullets"
For her 18th birthday, Yousafzai opened a school for girls in Lebanon, a country in the
Middle East. The school teaches nearly 200 girls ages 14 to 18. The girls are refugees from
Syria, a nearby war-torn country. On that day, Yousafzai declared that world leaders should
buy "books instead of bullets."
On her website, Yousafzai wrote that world leaders have a lot of money that could be used
to educate children, but they choose to spend it on other things. If the whole world
stopped spending money on the military for just eight days, she said, there would be
enough money to send every child on the planet to school.
In October 2015, a documentary called "He Named Me Malala" was released. The film
gives viewers a look at Yousafzai's daily life, her family and her commitment to supporting
education for girls around the world.
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