LONDON: Pakistani teenager and Nobel peace prize hopeful Malala Yousafzai said on Wednesday that a country’s strength should not be measured by its army but by the number of educated people in it.

Receiving the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2013 from the European parliament in Strasbourg, the Pakistani campaigner for girls’ education said “There is poverty, lack of freedom, fear and terrorism, but there is hope”.

Making a passionate plea for more education as she accepted the prize for her fight to promote education for girls despite the threat of Taliban violence, Malala said “We are all here together united to help these children, to speak for them, to take action. These children do not want an I phone, an X-box, a Playstation or chocolates. They just want a book and a pen”.

The ceremony coincided with the 25th anniversary of the award, given out by the European Parliament each year to honour exceptional people who fight against intolerance and oppression.

As part of the celebration, 22 former laureates attended the event.

EP president Martin Schulz asked for a standing ovation for them, adding “Our thoughts go out to the other winners who are still deprived of their freedom, and to the winners who have left us, and our applause is for them as well. We have not forgotten them, or their struggles”.

“By awarding the Sakharov Prize to Malala Yousafzai, the European Parliament acknowledges the incredible strength of this young woman. Malala bravely stands for the right of all children to be granted a fair education. This right for girls is far too commonly neglected,” said EP president Martin Schulz, announcing the laureate.

Malala (16) is a student from the town of Mingora in Swat District, Pakistan, known for her women’s rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban regime has banned girls from attending school.

She gave her first public speech in September 2008, entitled “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to an education?”.

When all girls’ schools under Taliban control were closed in January 2009, she started a blog for BBC Urdu under the pseudonym of Gul Makai, a folklore heroine.

The blog brought fame to Malala and her fight. Threats to her family followed as soon as her identity was revealed, leading up to an assassination attempt in October 2012, when she was shot in the head and neck by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus.

“Malala has gained global recognition as a human rights fighter,” say the MEPs who nominated her, militating “for the right to female education, freedom and self-determination”.

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament to honour individuals or organizations who dedicate their lives to the defence of human rights and freedoms, particularly the right to free expression.

Sakharov (1921-1989), who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, first came to prominence as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb. Concerned at the implications his work had for the future of humankind, he sought to raise awareness of the dangers of the nuclear arms race. His efforts proved partially successful with the signing of the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty.