1 / 8 The young woman is tremendously brave

As early as 2008, Malala had already begun her fight for education rights. According to the Toronto Star, her father brought her to Peshawar to speak to a local press club in September of that year. “<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2009/10/26/brave_defiance_in_pakistans_swat_valley.html" target="_blank">How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?</a>” she said to the group gathered, adding that she hid her textbooks under her clothes when she walked to school. <br> <br> Malala was just 11 at the time. <br> <br> Since the failed assassination attempt, terrorists have said that <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/malala_n_4071286" target="_blank">they will “attack” her again</a> if they get the chance; but Malala, who — at the age of 11 also began writing a blog for the BBC, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19899540" target="_blank">describing her life under Taliban rule</a> — has refused to be intimidated. <br> <br> “If I speak truly, I’m a little bit scared of ghosts,” she famously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UTJtBoYXUI" target="_blank">told NDTV in 2013</a>. “But I’m not afraid [of the Taliban]. No, not at all.”

YouTube/NDTV