Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pakistani and the first

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

to receive a Nobel Prize. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

and children in her native homeland,

Swat In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

, where the Pakistani Taliban have at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen." The daughter of education activist Ziauddin Yousafzai, she was born to a

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai ( ps, یوسفزی, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ) are one of the largest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are natively based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to which they migrated to from Suliman mountains dur ...

Pashtun family in Swat and was named after the Afghan national heroine

Malalai of Maiwand Malalai of Maiwand ( ps, د ميوند ملالۍ), also known as Malala ( ps, links=no, ملاله), or Malalai Anna ( ps, links=no, ملالۍ انا, meaning ''Malalai the " Grandmother"'') is a national folk hero of Afghanistan who ralli ...

. Considering

Abdul Ghaffar Khan Abdul Ghaffār Khān (; 6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988), also known as Bacha Khan () or Badshah Khan (), and honourably addressed as Fakhr-e-Afghan (), was a Pakistani Pashtun, independence activist, and founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

, and

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...

as her role models, she was particularly inspired by her father's thoughts and humanitarian work. In early 2009, when she was 11, she wrote a blog under her pseudonym ''Gul Makai'' for the

BBC Urdu BBC Urdu ( ur, ) is the Urdu language station of the BBC World Service, accompanied by its website, which serves as a news portal and provides online access to radio broadcasts. The radio service is broadcast from Broadcasting House in London an ...

to detail her life during the Taliban's occupation of Swat. The following summer, journalist Adam B. Ellick made a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' documentary about her life as the

Pakistan Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

launched Operation Rah-e-Rast against the militants in Swat. She rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and was nominated for the

International Children's Peace Prize The International Children's Peace Prize is awarded annually to a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children's rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children such as orphans, child labourers and children with H ...

by activist

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbish ...

. On 9 October 2012, while on a bus in Swat District after taking an exam, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her activism; the gunman fled the scene. Yousafzai was hit in the head with a bullet and remained unconscious and in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, but her condition later improved enough for her to be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support for her.

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service cons ...

reported in January 2013 that she may have become "the most famous teenager in the world". Weeks after the attempted murder, a group of 50 leading Muslim clerics in Pakistan issued a ''

fatwā A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...

'' against those who tried to kill her. The Pakistani Taliban were internationally denounced by governments, human rights organizations and feminist groups. The Pakistani Taliban officials responded to condemnation by further denouncing Yousafzai, indicating plans for a possible second assassination attempt, which they felt was justified as a religious obligation. Their statements resulted in further international condemnation. After her recovery, Yousafzai became a prominent activist for the right to education. Based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, she co-founded the

Malala Fund Malala Fund is an international, non-profit organization that advocates for girls' education. It was co-founded by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and her father, Ziauddin. T ...

, a non-profit organisation, with

Shiza Shahid Shiza Shahid is a Pakistani social entrepreneur, social activist, investor, and educator. She is the co-founder and former CEO of the non-profit Malala Fund, which promotes education for every girl. In 2013, she was included in ''Time'' "30 Und ...

. In 2013, she co-authored '' I Am Malala'', an international best seller. In 2012, she received Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize and the 2013

Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scientis ...

. In 2014, she was the co-recipient of the

2014 Nobel Peace Prize The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in two equal parts, between Kailash Satyarthi (b. 1954) and Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997) "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education" ...

, with Kailash Satyarthi of India. Aged 17 at the time, she was the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. In 2015, she was the subject of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary '' He Named Me Malala''. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 issues of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine featured her as one of the most influential people globally. In 2017 she was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Commo ...

. Yousafzai completed her secondary school education at

Edgbaston High School Edgbaston High School for Girls is a private day school for girls aged to 18 in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. History In 1846, Elizabeth Brady founded a school in Edgbaston for the daughters of Quakers in 1846 and this ran for 21 ...

, Birmingham in England from 2013 to 2017. From there she won a place at

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more form ...

and undertook three years of study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). She graduated in 2020.

Early life

Childhood

Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997 in the

Swat District Swat District (, ps, سوات ولسوالۍ, ) is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. With a population of 2,309,570 per the 2017 national census, Swat is the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

of Pakistan's northwestern

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...

province, into a lower-middle-class family. She is the daughter of Ziauddin Yousafzai and Toor Pekai Yousafzai. Her family is

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...

Muslim of

ethnicity, belonging to the

tribe. The family did not have enough money for a hospital birth and Yousafzai was born at home with the help of neighbours. She was given her first name ''Malala'' (meaning "grief-stricken") after

, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. At her house in

Mingora Mingora ( ps, مینګورہ, ur, ) is a city in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Located on the Swat River, it is the 3rd largest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the 26th largest in Pakistan. Mingora is the largest city and t ...

, she lived with her two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal, her parents, Ziauddin and Tor Pekai, and two chickens. Fluent in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' educational activist himself, running a chain of private schools known as the Khushal Public School. In an interview, she once said that she aspired to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead. Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, allowing her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed. Inspired by the twice-elected

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

, Yousafzai started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her to

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

to speak at the local

press club Organizations A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...

. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" she asked in a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region. In 2009, she began as a trainee and was then a peer educator in the

Institute for War and Peace Reporting The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is an independent nonprofit organization that claims to train and provide publishing opportunities for professional and citizen journalists. History IWPR was founded in 1991 under the name Yugofax. ...

's Open Minds Pakistan youth programme, which worked in the region's schools to help students engage in constructive discussion on social issues through journalism, public debate and dialogue.

As a BBC blogger

In late 2008, Aamer Ahmed Khan of the

website and his colleagues came up with a novel way of covering the Pakistani Taliban's growing influence in

. They decided to ask a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life there. Their correspondent in

, Abdul Hai Kakar, had been in touch with a local school teacher, Ziauddin Yousafzai, but could not find any students willing to report, as their families considered it too dangerous. Finally, Yousafzai suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala. At the time, Pakistani Taliban militants led by

Maulana Fazlullah Fazal Hayat (1974 – 14 June 2018), more commonly known by his pseudonym Mullah Fazlullah (Pashto/ ur, ), was an Islamist militant who was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, and was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki ...

were taking over the Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls' education, and women from going shopping. Bodies of beheaded policemen were being displayed in town squares. At first, a girl named Aisha from her father's school agreed to write a diary, but her parents stopped her from doing it because they feared Taliban reprisals. The only alternative was Yousafzai, who was four years younger and in seventh grade at the time. "We had been covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn't know much about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban", said Mirza Waheed, former editor of BBC Urdu. Because they were concerned for Yousafzai's safety, the BBC editors insisted she use a pseudonym. Her blog was published under the byline "Gul Makai" (" cornflower" in Pashto), a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale. On 3 January 2009, her first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog. She hand-wrote notes and passed them to a reporter who scanned and e-mailed them. The blog recorded Yousafzai's thoughts during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations took place, fewer girls show up to school, and finally, her school shut down. That day she wrote:

I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 out of 27 pupils attended the class because the number decreased because of the Pakistani Taliban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict.

In Swat, the Pakistani Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. They had already blown up more than 100 girls' schools. The night before the ban took effect was filled with the noise of artillery fire, waking Yousafzai several times. The following day, she also read for the first time excerpts from her blog that were published in a local newspaper.

Banned from school

Following the edict, the Pakistani Taliban destroyed several more local schools. On 24 January 2009, Yousafzai wrote: "Our annual exams are due after the vacations but this will only be possible if the Pakistani Taliban allow girls to go to school. We were told to prepare certain chapters for the exam but I do not feel like studying." In February 2009, girls' schools were still closed. In solidarity, private schools for boys had decided not to open until 9 February, and notices appeared saying so. On 7 February, Yousafzai and her brother returned to their hometown of Mingora, where the streets were deserted, and there was an "eerie silence". She wrote in her blog: "We went to the supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed." Their home had been robbed and their television was stolen. After boys' schools reopened, the Pakistani Taliban lifted restrictions on girls' primary education, where there was

co-education Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

. Girls-only schools were still closed. Yousafzai wrote that only 70 pupils attended out of the 700 who were enrolled. On 15 February, gunshots were heard in Mingora's streets, but Yousafzai's father reassured her, saying, "Don't be scared—this is firing for peace." Her father had read in the newspaper that the government and militants were going to sign a peace deal the next day. Later that night, when the Taliban announced the peace deal on their

FM Radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...

studio, another round of stronger firing started outside. Yousafzai spoke out against the Pakistani Taliban on the national current affairs show ''

Capital Talk ''Capital Talk'' is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship political talk show broadcast on Geo News. Hosted by Hamid Mir, Capital Talk looks at the challenges, issues and concerns facing Pakistan on a daily basis. The format includes several gu ...

'' on 18 February. Three days later, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi leader Maulana Fazlulla announced on his FM radio station that he was lifting the ban on women's education, and girls would be allowed to attend school until exams were held on 17 March, but that they had to wear

burqa A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...

Girls' schools reopen

On 25 February, Yousafzai wrote on her blog that she and her classmates "played a lot in class and enjoyed ourselves like we used to before." Attendance at Yousafzai's class was up to 19 of 27 pupils by 1 March, but the Pakistani Taliban were still active in the area. Shelling continued, and relief goods meant for displaced people were looted. Only two days later, Yousafzai wrote that there was a skirmish between the military and Taliban, and the sounds of mortar shells could be heard: "People are again scared that the peace may not last for long. Some people are saying that the peace agreement is not permanent, it is just a break in fighting." On 9 March, Yousafzai wrote about a science paper that she performed well on, and added that the Taliban were no longer searching vehicles as they once did. Her blog ended on 12 March 2009.

As a displaced person

After the BBC diary ended, Yousafzai and her father were approached by ''

'' reporter Adam B. Ellick about filming a documentary. In May, the Pakistani Army moved into the region to regain control during the Second Battle of Swat (also known as Operation Rah-e-Rast). Mingora was evacuated and Yousafzai's family was displaced and separated. Her father went to

to protest and lobby for support, while she was sent into the countryside to live with relatives. "I'm really bored because I have no books to read," she is filmed saying in the documentary. That month, after criticising militants at a press conference, Yousafzai's father received a death threat over the radio by a Pakistani Taliban commander. Yousafzai was deeply inspired in her activism by her father. That summer, for the first time, she committed to becoming a politician and not a doctor, as she had once aspired to be. By early July, refugee camps were filled to capacity. The prime minister made a long-awaited announcement saying it was safe to return to the Swat Valley. The Pakistani military had pushed the Taliban out of the cities and into the countryside. Yousafzai's family reunited, and on 24 July 2009 they headed home. They made one stop first—to meet with a group of other

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

activists that had been invited to see United States

President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan,

Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...

. Yousafzai pleaded with Holbrooke to intervene in the situation, saying, "Respected ambassador, if you can help us in our education, so please help us." When her family finally returned home, they found it had not been damaged, and her school had sustained only light damage.

Early activism

Following the documentary, Yousafzai was interviewed on the national

-language station AVT Khyber, the Urdu-language ''

Daily Aaj The ''Daily Aaj'' ( ur, روزنامہ آج) is an Urdu language newspaper simultaneously being published from Peshawar, Islamabad and Abbottabad in Pakistan since 1989. Daily Aaj newspaper is a member of the All Pakistan Newspapers Societ ...

'', and Canada's ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

''. She made a second appearance on ''

'' on 19 August 2009. Her BBC blogging identity was being revealed in articles by December 2009. She also began appearing on television to publicly advocate for female education. From 2009 to 2010 she was the chair of the District Child Assembly of the Khpal Kor Foundation. In 2011, Yousafzai trained with local girls' empowerment organisation, Aware Girls, run by Gulalai Ismail, whose training included advice on women's rights and empowerment to peacefully oppose radicalisation through education. In October 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African activist, nominated Yousafzai for the

of the Dutch international children's advocacy group,

KidsRights Foundation The KidsRights Foundation is an international children's aid and advocacy organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The foundation was founded in 2003, by Marc Dullaert and Inge Ikink. KidsRights raises funds for independent local aid ...

. She was the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award. The announcement said, "Malala dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to go to school." The award was won by

Michaela Mycroft Michaela (Chaeli) Mycroft (born 30 August 1994) is a South African ability activist with cerebral palsy who won the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011. The medal was presented to her by Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire. In 2004 Cha ...

of South Africa. Yousafzai's public profile rose even further when she was awarded Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize two months later in December. On 19 December 2011, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani awarded her the National Peace Award for Youth. At the ceremony, she stated she was not a member of any political party, but hoped to found a national party of her own to promote education. The prime minister directed the authorities to set up an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women at Yousafzai's request, and a secondary school was renamed in her honour. By 2012, she was planning to organise the Malala Education Foundation, which would help poor girls go to school. In 2012, she attended the

International Marxist Tendency The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) is an international Trotskyist political tendency founded by Ted Grant and his supporters following their break with the Committee for a Workers' International in 1992. The organization's website, Marx ...

National Marxist Summer School. In a television interview the same year, she named Barack Obama, Benazir Bhutto and

(Bacha Khan), a Pashtun leader known for his

nonviolent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

Khudai Khidmatgar

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

against the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

, as inspirations for her activism.

Murder attempt

As Yousafzai became more recognised, the dangers facing her increased. Death threats against her were published in newspapers and slipped under her door. On

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

, where she was an active user, she began to receive threats. Eventually, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said they were "forced" to act. In a meeting held in the summer of 2012, Taliban leaders unanimously agreed to kill her. On 9 October 2012, a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai as she rode home on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Yousafzai was 15 years old at the time. According to reports, a masked gunman shouted: "Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all." Upon being identified, Yousafzai was shot with one bullet, which travelled from the side of her left eye, through her neck and landed in her shoulder. Two other girls were also wounded in the shooting: Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, both of whom were stable enough following the shooting to speak to reporters and provide details of the attack.

Medical treatment

After the shooting, Yousafzai was airlifted to a military hospital in

, where doctors were forced to operate after swelling developed in the left portion of her brain, which had been damaged by the bullet when it passed through her head. After a five-hour operation, doctors successfully removed the bullet, which had lodged in her shoulder near her spinal cord. The day following the attack, doctors performed a decompressive craniectomy, in which part of her skull was removed to allow room for swelling. On 11 October 2012, a panel of Pakistani and British doctors decided to move Yousafzai to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan ...

. Mumtaz Khan, a doctor, said that she had a 70% chance of survival.

Interior Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Rehman Malik Abdul Rehman Malik NI ( Punjabi, Urdu: رحمان ملک; born 12 December 1951 – 23 February 2022) was a Pakistani politician and a Federal Investigation Agency officer, having served as the Interior Minister from being appointed on 25 Mar ...

said that Yousafzai would be moved to Germany, where she could receive the best medical treatment, as soon as she was stable enough to travel. A team of doctors would travel with her, and the government would bear the cost of her treatment. Doctors reduced Yousafzai's sedation on 13 October, and she moved all four limbs.Alt URL
/ref> Offers to treat Yousafzai came from around the world. On 15 October, Yousafzai travelled to the United Kingdom for further treatment, approved by both her doctors and family. Her plane landed in

, England, where she was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, one of the specialties of this hospital being the treatment of military personnel injured in conflict. According to media reports at the time, the UK Government stated that " e Pakistani government is paying all transport, migration, medical, accommodation and subsistence costs for Malala and her party." Yousafzai had come out of her coma by 17 October 2012, was responding well to treatment, and was said to have a good chance of fully recovering without any brain damage. Later updates on 20 and 21 October stated that she was stable, but was still battling an infection. By 8 November, she was photographed sitting up in bed. On 11 November, Yousafzai underwent surgery for eight and a half hours, in order to repair her

facial nerve The facial nerve, also known as the seventh cranial nerve, cranial nerve VII, or simply CN VII, is a cranial nerve that emerges from the pons of the brainstem, controls the muscles of facial expression, and functions in the conveyance of taste ...

. On 3 January 2013, Yousafzai was discharged from the hospital to continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary home in the West Midlands, where she had weekly physiotherapy. She underwent a five-hour-long operation on 2 February to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing with a

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech unde ...

, after which she was reported to be in stable condition. Yousafzai wrote in July 2014 that her facial nerve had recovered up to 96%.From the Preface to the 2014 edition of '' I Am Malala'', page xix. .

Reaction

Malala Yousafzai Oval Office 11 Oct 2013

The murder attempt received worldwide media coverage and produced an outpouring of sympathy and anger. Protests against the shooting were held in several Pakistani cities the day after the attack, and over 2 million people signed the Right to Education campaign's petition, which led to ratification of the first Right to Education Bill in Pakistan. Pakistani officials offered a 10 million rupee (US$105,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers. Responding to concerns about his safety, Yousafzai's father said: "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets." Pakistan's president

Asif Ali Zardari Asif Ali Zardari ( ur, ; sd, ; born 26 July 1955) is a Pakistani politician who is the president of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and was the co-chairperson of Pakistan People's Party. He served as the 11th president of Pakist ...

described the shooting as an attack on "civilized people". UN Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Ministe ...

called it a "heinous and cowardly act". United States President

found the attack "reprehensible, disgusting and tragic", while Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

said Yousafzai had been "very brave in standing up for the rights of girls" and that the attackers had been "threatened by that kind of empowerment". British Foreign Secretary

William Hague William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

called the shooting "barbaric" and that it had "shocked Pakistan and the world". American singer

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

dedicated her song "

Human Nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

" to Yousafzai at a concert in Los Angeles the day of the attack, and also had a temporary Malala tattoo on her back. American actress

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...

wrote an article explaining the event to her children and answering questions like "Why did those men think they needed to kill Malala?" Jolie later donated $200,000 to the Malala Fund for girls' education. Former

First Lady of the United States The first lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is the title held by the hostess of the White House, usually the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never ...

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...

wrote an op-ed piece in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' in which she compared Yousafzai to

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

diarist

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

. Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Yousafzai "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity", adding that if she survived, the group would target her again. In the days following the attack, the Pakistani Taliban reiterated its justification, saying Yousafzai had been brainwashed by her father: "We warned him several times to stop his daughter from using dirty language against us, but he didn't listen and forced us to take this extreme step." The Pakistani Taliban also justified its attack as part of religious scripture, stating that the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...

says that "people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed", going on to say that "

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam". On 12 October 2012, a group of Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a

– a ruling of Islamic law – against the Taliban gunmen who tried to kill Yousafzai. Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council publicly denounced attempts by the Pakistani Taliban to mount religious justifications for the shooting of Yousafzai and two of her classmates. Although the attack was roundly condemned in Pakistan, "some fringe Pakistani political parties and extremist outfits" have aired conspiracy theories, such as the shooting being staged by the American

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

to provide an excuse for continuing drone attacks. The Pakistani Taliban and some other pro-Pakistani Taliban elements branded Yousafzai an "American spy".

United Nations petition

On 15 October 2012, UN Special Envoy for Global Education,

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

, the former British Prime Minister, visited Yousafzai while she was in the hospital, and launched a petition in her name and "in support of what Malala fought for". Using the slogan "I am Malala", the petition's main demand was that there be no child left out of school by 2015, with the hope that "girls like Malala everywhere will soon be going to school". Brown said he would hand the petition to President Zardari in

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

in November. The petition contains three demands: * We call on Pakistan to agree to a plan to deliver education for every child. * We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls. * We call on international organisations to ensure the world's 61 million out-of-school children are in education by the end of 2015.

Criminal investigation, arrests, and acquittals

The day after the shooting, Pakistan's

stated that the Taliban gunman who shot Yousafzai had been identified. Police named 23-year-old Atta Ullah Khan, a graduate student in chemistry, as the gunman in the attack. , he remained at large, possibly in Afghanistan. The police also arrested six men for involvement in the attack, but they were later released due to lack of evidence. In November 2012, US sources confirmed that Mullah Fazlullah, the cleric who ordered the attack on Yousafzai, was hiding in eastern Afghanistan. He was killed by a U.S.-Afghan air strike in June 2018. On 12 September 2014, ISPR Director, Major General

Asim Bajwa Asim Saleem Bajwa (Urdu, Punjabi: ) is a retired Pakistani three-star general who served as the chairman of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority from November 2019 to August 2021 and the special assistant to then Prime Minister Imran ...

, told a media briefing in Islamabad that the 10 attackers belonged to a militant group called "Shura". General Bajwa said that Israrur Rehman was the first member of the militant group to be identified and apprehended by troops. Acting upon the information received during his interrogation, all other members of the militant group were arrested. It was an intelligence-based joint operation conducted by ISI, police, and the military. In April 2015, the ten men who had been arrested were sentenced to life in prison by Judge Mohammad Amin Kundi, a counterterrorism judge, with the chance of eligibility for parole, and possible release, after 25 years. It is not known whether the actual would-be murderers were among the ten sentenced. In June 2015, it was revealed that eight of the ten men tried in-camera for the attack had in fact been secretly acquitted, and insiders revealed that one of the men acquitted and freed had been the mastermind behind the murder bid. It is believed that all the other men involved in the shooting of Yousafzai fled to Afghanistan soon afterwards and were never even captured. The information about the release of suspects came to light after the London ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its Masthead (British publishing), masthead was simpl ...

'' attempted to locate the men in prison. Senior police official Salim Khan stated that the eight men were released because there was not enough evidence to connect them to the attack.

Education

From March 2013 to July 2017, Yousafzai was a pupil at the all-girls

in Birmingham. In August 2015, she received 6 A*s and 4 As at

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

level. At

A-Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

, she studied Geography, History, Mathematics and Religious Studies. Also applying to

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_cha ...

, the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...

and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

(LSE), Yousafzai was interviewed at

in December 2016 and received a conditional offer of three As in her ALevels; in August 2017, she was accepted to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). In February 2020, climate change activist

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

travelled to Oxford University to meet Yousafzai. On 19 June 2020, Yousafzai said after passing her final examinations that she had completed her PPE degree at Oxford; she graduated with honours.

Continuing activism

Yousafzai spoke before the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

in July 2013, and had an audience with

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

. In September, she spoke at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, and in October, she met with US President

and his family; during that meeting, she confronted him on his use of drone strikes in Pakistan. In December, she addressed the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

. In July 2014, Yousafzai spoke at the Girl Summit in London. In October 2014, she donated $50,000 to the

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 P ...

for reconstruction of schools on the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

. Even though she was fighting for women's rights as well as children's rights, Yousafzai did not describe herself as a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

when asked on ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' Under 30 Summit in 2014. In 2015, Yousafzai told Emma Watson she decided to call herself a feminist after hearing Watson's speech at the UN launching the

HeForShe HeForShe, often referred to as He for She, is a solidarity movement for the advancement of gender equality, initiated by the United Nations. Grounded in the idea that gender inequality is an issue that affects all people, socially, economical ...

campaign. On 12 July 2015, her 18th birthday, Yousafzai opened a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees. The school, funded by the

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Malala Fund, offers education and training to girls aged 14 to 18 years. Yousafzai called on world leaders to invest in "books, not bullets". Yousafzai has repeatedly condemned the Rohingya persecution in Myanmar. In June 2015, the Malala Fund released a statement in which Yousafzai argues that the Rohingya people deserve "citizenship in the country where they were born and have lived for generations" along with "equal rights and opportunities." She urges world leaders, particularly in Myanmar, to "halt the inhuman persecution of Burma's Muslim minority Rohingya people." In September 2017, speaking in Oxford, Yousafzai said: "This should be a human rights issue. Governments should react to it. People are being displaced, they're facing violence." Yousafzai also posted a statement on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

calling for Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...

to condemn the treatment of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Suu Kyi has avoided taking sides in the conflict, or condemning violence against the Rohingya people, leading to widespread criticism. In 2014, Yousafzai stated that she wished to return to Pakistan following her education in the UK, and inspired by

, she would consider running for prime minister: "If I can help my country by joining the government or becoming the prime minister, I would definitely be up for this task." She repeated this aim in 2015 and 2016. However, Yousafzai noted in 2018 that her goal had changed, stating that "now that I have met so many presidents and prime ministers around the world, it just seems that things are not simple and there are other ways that I can bring the change that I want to see." In an interview with

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of ''Late Night with David Letterman' ...

for Netflix's show '' My Next Guest Needs No Introduction'', Yousafzai was asked: "Would you ever want to hold a political position?" She replied: "Me? No."

Representation

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arranged for Yousafzai's appearance before the United Nations in July 2013. Brown also requested that

McKinsey McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest a ...

consultant Shiza Shahid, a friend of the Yousafzai family, chair Yousafzai's charity fund, which had gained the support of

. Google's vice-president Megan Smith also sits on the fund's board. In November 2012, the consulting firm

Edelman Edelman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abram Wolf Edelman (a.k.a. Abraham Edelman; 1832–1907), Polish-born American rabbi; the first rabbi in Los Angeles, California * Adam Edelman (born 1991), American-born four-time Is ...

began work for Yousafzai on a pro bono basis, which according to the firm "involves providing a press office function for Malala". The office employs five people, and is headed by speechwriter Jamie Lundie. McKinsey also continues to provide assistance to Yousafzai.

Malala Day

On 12 July 2013, Yousafzai's 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. The UN dubbed the event "Malala Day". Yousafzai wore one of

's shawls to the UN. It was her first public speech since the attack, leading the first ever Youth Takeover of the UN, with an audience of over 500 young education advocates from around the world. Yousafzai received several standing ovations. Ban Ki-moon, who also spoke at the session, described her as "our hero". Yousafzai also presented the chamber with "The Education We Want", a Youth Resolution of education demands written by Youth for Youth, in a process co-ordinated by the UN Global Education First Youth Advocacy Group, telling her audience: The Pakistani government did not comment on Yousafzai's UN appearance, amid a backlash against her in Pakistan's press and social media. Words from the speech were used as lyrics for "Speak Out", a song by

Kate Whitley Kate Whitley (born 1989) is an English composer and pianist. Career She is classically trained and studied music at King's College, Cambridge. Her music is recorded by NMC Recordings and her debut release, ''I am, I say'' was released in 2017. I ...

commissioned by

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

and broadcast on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wo ...

2017.

Jon Stewart interview

On 8 October 2013 Malala, at the age of 16, visited '' The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'', an American television programme, her first major late night appearance. She was there as a guest to promote her book, '' I Am Malala''. On the program they discussed her assassination attempt,

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, and women's education. She left

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted '' The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts '' ...

speechless when she described her thoughts after learning the Pakistani Taliban wanted her dead, saying: Stewart, visibly moved by her words, ended the conversation saying: "I am humbled to speak with you." Stewart would again have her as a guest on the show after the 2015

Charleston Church Shooting On June 17, 2015, a mass shooting occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among those people who were killed was the senior past ...

, in which he started the show citing no jokes saying, "our guest is a incredible person who suffered unspeakable violence by extremists and her perseverance and determination through that to continue on is an incredibly inspiration and to be quite honestly with you, I don't think there's anyone else in the world I would rather talk to tonight than Malala so that's what we'll do and sorry about no jokes."

Nobel Peace Prize

Malala's shawl at the Nobel Museum (51982)

On 10 October 2014, Yousafzai was announced as the co-recipient of the

for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Having received the prize at the age of 17, Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel laureate. Yousafzai shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a

children's rights Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.

activist from India. She is the second Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize after 1979 Physics laureate

Abdus Salam Mohammad Abdus Salam Salam adopted the forename "Mohammad" in 1974 in response to the anti-Ahmadiyya decrees in Pakistan, similarly he grew his beard. (; ; 29 January 192621 November 1996) was a Punjabis, Punjabi Pakistani theoretical physici ...

. After she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, there was praise, but also some disapproval of the decision. A Norwegian jurist, Fredrik Heffermehl, commented on being awarded the Nobel Prize: "This is not for fine people who have done nice things and are glad to receive it. All of that is irrelevant. What Nobel wanted was a prize that promoted global disarmament." Adán Cortés, a college student from Mexico City and asylum seeker, interrupted Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in protest for the

2014 Iguala mass kidnapping On September 26, 2014, forty-three male students disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College after being forcibly abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Iguala an ...

in Mexico, but was quickly taken away by security personnel. Yousafzai later sympathised, and acknowledged that problems are faced by young people all over the world, saying "there are problems in Mexico, there are problems even in America, even here in Norway, and it is really important that children raise their voices".

David Letterman interview

In March 2018, Yousafzai was the subject of an interview with

for his Netflix show '' My Next Guest Needs No Introduction''. Speaking about the Taliban, she opined that their misogyny comes from a

superiority complex Superiority complex is a term coined by Alfred Adler in the early 1900s, as part of his school of individual psychology. A superiority complex is a defense mechanism that develops over time to help a person cope with feelings of inferiority. Indi ...

, and is reinforced by finding "excuses" in culture or literature, such as by misinterpreting teachings of Islam. On the topic of her attackers, Yousafzai comments: "I forgive them because that's the best revenge I can have." Pointing out that the person who attacked her was a young boy, she says: "He thought he was doing the right thing". Asked about the

presidency of Donald Trump Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...

, Yousafzai said: "Some of the things have really disappointed me, like sexual harassment and the ban on Muslims and racism." She also criticised the Trump administration's proposed budget cuts to education, saying that education is the first step to "eradicating extremism and ending poverty". Throughout the episode, clips are shown of Yousafzai acting as a tour guide for prospective students to her college

Afghanistan

In July 2021, amid a major offensive by the Taliban insurgents, Yousafzai urged the international community to press for an immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan and provide

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and v ...

to Afghan civilians. Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021, she expressed concern about the fate of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countri ...

, fearing that

women in Afghanistan Women's rights in Afghanistan have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period. After King Amanullah Khan's attempts to modernize the country in the 1920s, women officially gained equality under the 1964 Constitution. However, th ...

would lose the social and educational gains that had been made during the previous Afghan government's two decades. Yousafzai condemned the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

's ban on girls' education beyond 6th grade, and said "the Taliban will continue to make excuses to prevent girls from learning beyond

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

." She said the Taliban "want to erase girls and women from all public life in Afghanistan," and asked "leaders around the world to take collective action to hold the Taliban accountable for violating the human rights of millions of women and girls."

Burqa and bikini

On 7 March 2022, Malala Yousafzai advocated for every woman's right to decide to wear what she likes for herself, from a

to a bikini. She also advised against others coming to her with their wardrobe notes.

Personal life

On 9 November 2021, Yousafzai married Asser Malik, a manager with the Pakistan Cricket Board, in Birmingham.

Reception

Pakistan

Reception of Yousafzai in Pakistan is mostly negative. Her opposition to the policy of Talibanisation made her unpopular among

sympathisers. A ''Dawn'' columnist said she was scapegoated by the "failing state government," and a journalist in ''The Nation'' wrote Yousafzai was hated by "overzealous patriots" who were keen to deny the oppression of women in Pakistan. Her statements conflicted with the view that militancy in Pakistan was a result of Western interference, and conservatives and Islamic fundamentalists described her ideology as "anti-Pakistan". In 2015, the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) banned her autobiographical book, '' I Am Malala'', at all Pakistani private schools, with the APPSF president Mirza Kashif Ali releasing his own book against her, ''I Am Not Malala''. His book accused Yousafzai of attacking the

under the pretence of female education, described her father as a "double agent" and "traitor", and denounced the

's promotion of secular education. However, Ali pointed out that the APPSF had went on a national strike when Yousafzai was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban. Conspiracy theorists in newspapers and social media also alleged that Yousafzai had staged her assassination attempt, or that she was an agent of the US

(CIA). Many Pakistanis view her as an "agent of the West", due to her Nobel prize, Oxford education and residence in England. Another conspiracy theory alleges that Yousafzai is a Jewish agent. Farman Nawaz argued in ''Daily Outlook Afghanistan'' that Yousafzai would have gained more fame in Pakistan if she belonged to the province of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

. Yousafzai is seen as courageous by some Pakistanis. On 29 March 2018, Yousafzai returned to Pakistan for the first time since the shooting. Meeting

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she gave a speech in which she said it had been her dream to return without any fear. Yousafzai then visited her hometown

. The APPSF, representing 173,000 private schools in Pakistan, organised an "I Am Not Malala Day" on 30 March in response to what the federation said were her "anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan" views. Yousafzai responded by saying "I am proud of my religion and country."

India

Many people in India have accused Yousafzai of spreading the "Pakistani agenda" over the Kashmir conflict, and being selective in condemning human rights abuses. On 7 August 2019, following the Indian revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Yousafzai expressed her concern about the situation and appealed to the international community to ensure peace in

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

. On 14 September 2019, Malala posted a tweet, in which she said that a

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

girl told her: "I feel purposeless and depressed because I can't go to school. I missed my exams on August 12 and I feel my future is insecure now." However, many Twitter users pointed out that on 12 August 2019, it was

Eid al-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's com ...

in India, a public holiday when schools were closed across the country, so an exam would not be even possible on that day. After her tweet, Yousafzai was widely criticised on Twitter, including by some Indian celebrities.

Works

Woman Scream International Poetry Festival 2013 to honor Malala in Argentina

Yousafzai's memoir '' I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban'', co-written with British journalist

Christina Lamb Christina Lamb OBE (born 15 May 1965) is a British journalist and author. She is the chief foreign correspondent of ''The Sunday Times''. Lamb has won sixteen major awards including four British Press Awards and the European Prix Bayeux-Calvad ...

, was published in October 2013 by

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

in the US and by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK. Fatima Bhutto, reviewing the book for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' called the book "fearless" and stated that "the haters and conspiracy theorists would do well to read this book", though she criticised "the stiff, know-it-all voice of a foreign correspondent" that is interwoven with Yousafzai's. Marie Arana for ''

'' called the book "riveting" and wrote "It is difficult to imagine a chronicle of a war more moving, apart from perhaps the diary of Anne Frank." Tina Jordan in ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' gave the book a "B+", writing "Malala's bravely eager voice can seem a little thin here, in ''I Am Malala'', likely thanks to her co-writer, but her powerful message remains undiluted." Malala Yousafzai

A children's edition of the memoir was published in 2014 under the title ''I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World''. According to ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', in 2017 the book had sold almost 2 million copies, and there were 750,000 copies of the children's edition in print. Yousafzai was the subject of the 2015 documentary '' He Named Me Malala'', which was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

. In 2020, an Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language biographical film ''

Gul Makai ''Gul Makai'' is a 2020 Indian biographical dramadirected by H.E. Amjad Khan and written by Bhaswati Chakrabarty, Produced under the banner of Tekno Films and Pen Studios. The film was shot in Hindi and Urdu. The film is based on the life o ...

'' by H. E. Amjad Khan was released, with

Reem Sameer Shaikh Reem Sameer Shaikh is an Indian actress, known for her works in Indian television and Hindi cinema. Her most notable work includes '' Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha'', ''Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat'', ''Tujhse Hai Raabta'', '' Gul Makai'' and ' ...

portraying her. Yousafzai authored a picture book, ''

Malala's Magic Pencil ''Malala's Magic Pencil'' is a 2017 picture book authored by Malala Yousafzai and illustrated by Kerascoët. The book was published by Little, Brown and Company in the U.S., and Puffin Books in the U.K., with Farrin Jacobs as editor. It shows You ...

'', which was illustrated by

Kerascoët Kerascoët is the joint pen name of the French illustrators, comics and animation artists Marie Pommepuy (born 1978) and Sébastien Cosset (born 1975). A married couple, they met while attending the Olivier de Serres art school. They chose their ...

and published on 17 October 2017. By March 2018, ''

The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddest ...

'' reported that the book had over 5,000 sales in the UK. In a review for ''

'', Imogen Carter describes the book as "enchanting", opining that it "strikes just the right balance" between "heavy-handed" and "heartfelt", and is a "welcome addition to the frustratingly small range of children's books that feature BAME central characters". Rebecca Gurney of ''

The Daily Californian ''The Daily Californian'' (''Daily Cal'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. It formerly published a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesd ...

'' gives the book a grade of 4.5 out of 5, calling it a "beautiful account of a terrifying but inspiring tale" and commenting "Though the story begins with fantasy, it ends starkly grounded in reality." In March 2018, it was announced that Yousafzai's next book '' We Are Displaced: True Stories of Refugee Lives'' would be published on 4 September 2018 by

's Young Readers division. The book is about

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s, and includes stories from Yousafzai's own life along with those of people she has met. Speaking about the book, Yousafzai said that "What tends to get lost in the current refugee crisis is the humanity behind the statistics" and "people become refugees when they have no other option. This is never your first choice." Profits from the book will go to Yousafzai's charity Malala Fund. She visited Australia and criticized its asylum policies and compared immigration policies of the US and Europe unfavourably to those of poor countries and Pakistan. The book was published on 8 January 2019. On 8 March 2021, a multiyear partnership between Yousafzai and

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

was announced. She will work on programming for Apple’s streaming service,

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription streaming service owned and operated by Apple Inc. Launched on November 1, 2019, it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service was announced ...

. The work will span “dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and children’s series, and draw on her ability to inspire people around the world.”

Awards and honours

Yousafzai has received the following national and international honours, listed by the date they were awarded: * 2011:

(nominee) * 2011: National Youth Peace Prize * January 2012: Anne Frank Award for Moral Courage * October 2012:

Sitara-e-Shujaat Sitara-e-Shujaat ( ur, ستارہِ شجاعت, , Star of Bravery), sometimes spelled Sitara-i-Shujaat, is the second-highest civil award for bravery bestowed by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is usually awarded to the Pakistani citizens ...

, Pakistan's second-highest civilian bravery award * November 2012: ''

Foreign Policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...

'' magazine top 100 global thinker * December 2012: ''

'' magazine

Person of the Year __NOTOC__ Person of the Year or Man of the Year is an award given to an individual by any type of organization. Most often, it is given by a newspaper or other news outlet to annually recognize a public person. Such awards have typically been awa ...

shortlist for 2012 * November 2012:

Mother Teresa Awards The Mother Teresa Awards, officially called the Mother Teresa Memorial Awards for Social Justice, are international and national awards presented annually to honour individuals and organizations that promote peace, equality and social justice, and a ...

for Social Justice * December 2012: Rome Prize for Peace and Humanitarian Action * January 2013: Top Name in Annual Survey of Global English in 2012 * January 2013: Simone de Beauvoir Prize * March 2013: Memminger Freiheitspreis 1525 (conferred on 7 December 2013 in Oxford) * March 2013: Doughty Street Advocacy award of

Index on Censorship Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association w ...

* March 2013: Fred and Anne Jarvis Award of the UK National Union of Teachers * April 2013: Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards, Global Trailblazer * April 2013: One of ''Time''s " 100 Most Influential People in the World" * May 2013: Premi Internacional Catalunya Award of Catalonia, May 2013 * June 2013: Annual Award for Development of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) * June 2013: International Campaigner of the Year, 2013 Observer Ethical Awards * August 2013:

Tipperary International Peace Award Tipperary Town (; ) is a town and a civil parish in County Tipperary, Ireland. Its population was 4,979 at the 2016 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical ba ...

for 2012, Ireland Tipperary Peace Convention * 2013: Portrait of Yousafzai by Jonathan Yeo displayed at

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

* September 2013:

Ambassador of Conscience Award The Ambassador of Conscience Award is Amnesty International's most prestigious human rights award. It celebrates individuals and groups who have furthered the cause of human rights by showing exceptional courage standing up to injustice and who h ...

from

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

* 2013:

* 2013: Clinton Global Citizen Awards from

Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was es ...

* September 2013: Harvard Foundation's Peter Gomes Humanitarian Award from

* 2013:

Anna Politkovskaya Award The Anna Politkovskaya Award was established in 2006 to remember and honor the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (1958–2006), murdered in Moscow on 7 October 2006 in order to silence her reporting about the war in Chechnya. The award ...

– Reach All Women in War * 2013: Reflections of Hope Award –

Oklahoma City National Memorial The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a memorial in the United States that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown Oklahoma City on th ...

& Museum * 2013: Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought – awarded by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

* 2013: Honorary Master of Arts degree awarded by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

* 2013: Pride of Britain (October) * 2013: ''

Glamour magazine ''Glamour'' is today an online women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. For many years a traditional hard-copy magazine, it was founded in 1939 and first published in April 1939 in the United States. It was originally called '' ...

'' Woman of the Year * 2013: GG2 Hammer Award at GG2 Leadership Awards (November) * 2013: International Prize for Equality and Non-Discrimination * 2014: Awarded the World Children's Prize also known as Children's Nobel Prize * 2014: Awarded Honorary Life Membership by the PSEU (Ireland) * 2014: Skoll Global Treasure Award * 2014: Honorary Doctor of Civil Law, University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada * 2014:

, shared with Kailash Satyarthi * 2014:

Philadelphia Liberty Medal The Liberty Medal is an annual award administered by the National Constitution Center (NCC) of the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Con ...

* 2014:

Asia Game Changer Award The Asia Game Changer Awards is an annual award ceremony held in recognition of individuals and organizations within and connected to the Asian community that have made positive contributions to the development and improvement of Asia and societ ...

* 2014: One of ''Time Magazine'' "The 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014" * 2014: Honorary Canadian citizenship * 2015: Asteroid

316201 Malala __NOTOC__ Year 316 ( CCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 1069 ''Ab ...

named in her honour. * 2015: The audio version of her book '' I Am Malala'' wins

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for Best Children's Album. * 2016: Honorary President of The Students' Union of the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

* 2016: Order of the Smile * 2017: Youngest ever

United Nations Messenger of Peace United Nations Messenger of Peace is a special post-nominal honorific title of authority bestowed by the United Nations to "distinguished individuals, carefully selected from the fields of art, music, literature and sports, who have agreed to help f ...

* 2017: Received honorary doctorate from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

* 2017: Ellis Island International Medal of Honor * 2017: Wonk of the Year 2017 from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was cha ...

* 2017:

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the ...

inducted Malala in the list of "150 of the most influential female leaders in the UK". * 2018: Advisor to Princess Zebunisa of Swat, Swat Relief Initiative Foundation,

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...

*2018: Gleitsman Award from the Center for the Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School * 2019: For their first match of March 2019, the women of the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles ( 1991, 1999, 2015, an ...

each wore a jersey with the name of a woman they were honoring on the back;

Carli Lloyd Carli Anne Hollins (; born July 16, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019), two-time FIFA Player of the Year ...

chose the name of Yousafzai. * 2022: Elected World's Children's Prize Decade Child Rights Hero, amongst previous recipients of the World's Children's Prize.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* * * *
"Malala: Wars Never End Wars"
''

DAWN Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ...

'', 2013 interview with audio clips of Yousafzai * *
''Class Dismissed: Malala's Story''
English-language documentary

(with 17 min. Al Jazeera video) *
Forging the Ideal Educated Girl
by Shenila Khoja-Moolji for academic work on Yousafzai {{DEFAULTSORT:Yousafzai, Malala 1997 births 21st-century memoirists 21st-century Pakistani women writers 21st-century Pakistani writers Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Asia Game Changer Award winners BBC 100 Women BBC people Child writers Children's rights activists Conspiracy theories in Pakistan Education activists Incidents of violence against girls Incidents of violence against women Living people Muslim socialists Muslim writers Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nonviolence advocates Pakistani bloggers Pakistani women bloggers Pakistani child activists Pakistani children's rights activists Pakistani educational theorists Pakistani expatriates in England Pakistani feminists Pakistani memoirists Pakistani Nobel laureates Pakistani refugees Pakistani socialists Pakistani Sunni Muslims Pakistani terrorism victims Pakistani women writers Pakistani women's rights activists Pashtun people People from Swat District People of the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Proponents of Islamic feminism Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award Sakharov Prize laureates Shooting survivors Shorty Award winners Victims of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Violence against women in Pakistan Women and education Women memoirists Women Nobel laureates Women shooting survivors Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands Youth activists