Malala Yousafzai is an activist for education for girlsespecially in her home region of northwest Pakistan. She fights against the Talibanwho want her blood for the promotion of education for women. She was born on July 12 1997 into a lower class family. Shegets her name from a legendary poet and warrior woman. She was mostly educatedby her father who is a poet and runs a school.
Her father is the one whoconvinced her to become a politician instead of what she originally wanted tobe which was a doctor. She started speaking out about educational rights in2008 her speech was so inspiring and controversial it was covered by the mediathroughout the region. Later in 2008 the BBC Urdu website had the idea to postan anonymous blog of the life of a schoolgirl in Peshawar but it would be verydangerous for anyone who volunteer for it. Malala’s dad suggested that she wasthe one who would do it. During that time the Taliban were banning things thatthey thought had western sentiment and could influence people so they censoreda lot of television and radio and would not let girls get an education. Womenwere not even allowed to leave the house without a male escort. Beheadings werecommonplace for anyone who would try to oppose them.
In seventh grade Malalaagreed to do the blog and in doing so put herself in immense danger. To ensureher safety she used a pseudonym instead of her real name. She would write downher thoughts and hand them to a reporter to record her thoughts.
One of thethings she wrote about was the first battle of swat. Which was fought betweenPakistan and the Taliban over control of the swat district of Pakistan. Becauseof this operation less and less girls were showing up for school untileventually it was outright shut down. In 2009 the Taliban officially bannedgirls from going to school at all and to show they were serious had alreadyblown up dozens of girls schools. As the Taliban continued to destroy schools Malala bloggedabout studying for exams even though her school was indefinitely closed. Insolidarity many private boys’ schools also closed.
Eventually after the boysprivate schools reopened. The restrictions placed on the girl’s education werelifted but only with schools that taught both boys and girls. Girl only schoolswere still closed. Malala wrote that only 10 percent of the students thatoriginally attended were still going to school. In February attendance of herclass was up but the Taliban were still very active in the area.
Continuallythere was fighting between that Taliban and the government in the same vicinityas where Malala was schooled and lived. After the BBC blog ended Malala wasapproached to be in a documentary. After that in May the Pakistani army was movingin to get back their control.
Through this Malala and her family was displacedand separated. While her father went to Peshawar. She was sent to live with hercountry relatives. Though this time is when she swore to become a politician.
As Malala rose in popularity and became more famous thedanger she was in multiplied. She was constantly getting death threats andeventually she was shot by a Taliban agent. She was shot with a bullet thatwent through her head to into her shoulder. This resulted in her being put in acoma. She was flown to Germany to get medical treatment and in October she wentto the UK to get more treatment. In 2013 she finally woke up from her coma.
Continuing with her activism after her recovery sheperformed a speech in from of the United Nations in 2013 she has met with manyrulers and important politicians like the queen of England and Barack Obama.Bravely confronting Obama about his drone strikes in her home country of Pakistan.On October 2014 she won the Nobel peace prize for the advocation of educationfor children.
At the tender age of 17 she is the youngest person ever toreceive the honor. Even through times of struggle and grief Malala ralliedthrough and is still to this day advocation for the education of her peers.
