Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai S.St is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. She is known mainly for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Yousafzai's advocacy has since grown into an international movement...
NationalityPakistani
ProfessionCivil Rights Leader
Date of Birth12 July 1997
CityMingora, Pakistan
CountryPakistan
I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don't be afraid — if you are afraid, you can't move forward.
I don't mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is education. And I'm afraid of no one.
The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.
We are stronger than those who oppress us, who seek to silence us. We are stronger than the enemies of education. We are stronger than fear, hatred, violence and poverty.
I dreamt of a country where education would prevail.
I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there was a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me, I would not shoot him.
Malala Day is not my day. It is the day of every girl and every boy. It is a day when we come together to raise our voices, so that those without a voice can be heard.
In many parts of the world, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism, war and conflict stop children to go to their schools. We are really tired of these wars. Women and children are suffering.
You know, my father was a great encouragement for me, because he spoke out for women's rights, he spoke out for girls' education. And at that time I said that 'Why should I wait for someone else? Why should I be looking to the government? To the army, that they would help us? Why don't I raise I my voice? Why don't we speak out for our rights?
I believe the gun has no power because a gun can only kill, but a pen can give life.
If you hit a Talib, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib, You must not treat others with cruelty. You must fight others through peace and through dialogue and through education.
I said to myself, Malala, you must be brave. You must not be afraid of anyone. You are only trying to get an education. You are not committing a crime.
I don't want to be thought of as the 'girl who was shot by the Taliban' but the 'girl who fought for education. This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.
Outside his office my father had a framed copy of a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to his son's teacher, translated into Pashto. It is a very beautiful letter, full of good advice. Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books...But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside, it says. Teach him it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat.