Who Is Malala Yousafzai?

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani education advocate who, at the age of 17 in 2014, became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban. Yousafzai became an advocate for girls' education when she herself was still a child, which resulted in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. On October 9, 2012, a gunman shot Yousafzai when she was traveling home from school. She survived and has continued to speak out on the importance of education. In 2013, she gave a speech to the United Nations and published her first book, I Am Malala.

10 Inspiring Quotes From Malala Yousafzai 10 Gallery 10 Images

Early Life

Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan, located in the country's Swat Valley.

For the first few years of her life, Yousafzai's hometown remained a popular tourist spot that was known for its summer festivals. The area began to change as the Taliban tried to take control.

Education Activist

Yousafzai attended a school that her father, educator Ziauddin Yousafzai, had founded. After the Taliban began attacking girls' schools in Swat, Yousafzai gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in September 2008. The title of her talk was, "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?"

In early 2009, when she was just 11 years old, Yousafzai began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban's threats to deny her an education. In order to hide her identity, she used the name Gul Makai. However, she was revealed to be the BBC blogger in December of that year.

With a growing public platform, Yousafzai continued to speak out about her right, and the right of all women, to an education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize.

Yousafzai and her family learned that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her because of her activism. Though Yousafzai was frightened for the safety of her father — an anti-Taliban activist — she and her family initially felt that the fundamentalist group would not actually harm a child.

Shot by the Taliban

On October 9, 2012, when 15-year-old Yousafzai was riding a bus with friends on their way home from school, a masked gunman boarded the bus and demanded to know which girl was Yousafzai. When her friends looked toward Yousafzai, her location was given away. The gunman fired at her, hitting Malala in the left side of her head; the bullet then traveled down her neck. Two other girls were also injured in the attack.

The shooting left Yousafzai in critical condition, so she was flown to a military hospital in Peshawar. A portion of her skull was removed to treat her swelling brain. To receive further care, she was transferred to Birmingham, England.

Once she was in the United Kingdom, Yousafzai was taken out of a medically induced coma. Though she would require multiple surgeries—including repair of a facial nerve to fix the paralyzed left side of her face — she had suffered no major brain damage. In March 2013, she was able to begin attending school in Birmingham.

The shooting resulted in a massive outpouring of support for Yousafzai, which continued during her recovery. Unfortunately, the Taliban still considers Yousafzai a target, although Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate for the power of education.

Speech at the U.N.

Nine months after being shot by the Taliban, Yousafzai gave a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday in 2013. Yousafzai highlighted her focus on education and women's rights, urging world leaders to change their policies.

Following the attack, Yousafzai said that “the terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.”

Yousafzai also urged action against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism:

“The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women... Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.”

Malala Day

At Yousafzai’s 2013 speech at the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pronounced July 12th – Yousafzai's birthday – 'Malala Day' in honor of the young leader’s activism to ensure education for all children. At the announcement, Ban said:

“Malala chose to mark her 16th birthday with the world. No child should have to die for going to school. Nowhere should teachers fear to teach or children fear to learn. Together, we can change the picture.”

Awards

In October 2013, the European Parliament awarded Yousafzai the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in acknowledgment of her work. In October 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, at just 17 years old; she received the award along with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.

Yousafzai was first nominated for the Nobel in 2013 but did not win. She was renominated in March 2014. In congratulating Yousafzai, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: “She is (the) pride of Pakistan, she has made her countrymen proud. Her achievement is unparalleled and unequaled. Girls and boys of the world should take lead from her struggle and commitment." Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Yousafzai as "a brave and gentle advocate of peace who, through the simple act of going to school, became a global teacher.”

In April 2017, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Yousafzai as a U.N. Messenger of Peace to promote girls education. The appointment is the highest honor given by the United Nations for an initial period of two years.

Yousafzai was also given honorary Canadian citizenship in April 2017. She is the sixth person and the youngest in the country’s history to receive the honor.

The Malala Fund

In 2013, Yousafzai and her father launched the Malala Fund, which works to ensure girls around the world have access to 12 years of free, safe, quality education. The fund prioritizes assistance to its Gulmakai Network — a reference to the pseudonym Yousafzai used when she wrote her BBC blog about life in Pakistan under Taliban rule. These countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, are where most girls miss out on secondary education.

For her 18th birthday, in July 2015, Yousafzai continued to take action on global education by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. Its expenses covered by the Malala Fund, the school was designed to admit nearly 200 girls from the ages of 14 to 18. "Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world's children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets," Yousafzai proclaimed in one of the school's classrooms.

That day, she wrote on The Malala Fund website:

“The shocking truth is that world leaders have the money to fully fund primary AND secondary education around the world - but they are choosing to spend it on other things, like their military budgets. In fact, if the whole world stopped spending money on the military for just 8 days, we could have the $39 billion still needed to provide 12 years of free, quality education to every child on the planet.”

Return to Pakistan

On March 29, 2018, Yousafzai returned to Pakistan for the first time since her brutal 2012 attack. Not long after arriving, she met with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and delivered an emotional speech at his office.

"In the last five years, I have always dreamed of coming back to my country," she said, adding, "I never wanted to leave."

Yousafzai also visited her former home and a military-run cadet college in Mingora during her four-day trip.

Books

'I Am Malala'

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban is an autobiography by Malala Yousafzai released in October 2013. It became an international bestseller. The book was abridged in 2018 for young chapter book readers as Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls' Rights.

'Malala's Magic Pencil'

Yousafzai published a children's picture book about her life in October 2017. Malala's Magic Pencil introduces her childhood in Pakistan through a well-known TV show where a young boy uses his magic pencil to help people. In the book, the magic pencil instructs readers how to make the world a better place. "My voice became so powerful that the dangerous men tried to silence me. But they failed," Yousafzai writes.

'We Are Displaced'

Published in 2018, We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World explores Yousafzai's story as well as the stories of girls she met in her travels to refugee camps in Colombia, Guatemala, Syria and Yemen.

'He Named Me Malala' Documentary

In October 2015, a documentary about Yousafzai's life was released. HE NAMED ME MALALA, directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman), gave viewers an intimate look into the life of Yousafzai, her family, and her commitment to supporting education for girls around the world.

College

Yousafzai began studying at Oxford University in 2017, graduating in June 2020 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.