Malala wins Nobel Peace Prize

To jointly share award with Indias Kailash Satyarthi; invites Nawaz Sharif, Narendra
Modi to attend the award ceremony; dedicates prize to voiceless children around the
world


Saturday, October 11, 2014
From Print Edition


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OSLO/LONDON: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly on Friday to 17-year-old
Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban, and to
Indias Kailash Satyarthi for their championing of childrens rights.

Malala, the youngest Nobel laureate, heard the news while in class at her school in Birmingham,
England, where she moved from Pakistan to receive life-saving treatment two years ago.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the duo had been chosen for their struggle against the
repression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

Malala, who had fought for years for the right of girls to education, leapt to global fame after the
Taliban tried to gun her down in October 2012. Her campaign, the Nobel committee said, has
been carried out under the most dangerous circumstances.

Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls rights to
education, the committee said.

The selection of such a young winner was bound to be eye-catching, but another unusual aspect
of this years prize was the choice of citizens from the hostile neighbours of India and Pakistan.
Seventeen civilians have been killed in the last few days in the disputed Kashmir region, the
worst violence for decades.

Satyarthi, who founded a consumer campaign in the 1980s to combat child labour in the
handmade carpet industry, said he was delighted, calling the Nobel prize recognition of our
fight for child rights.

The low-profile 60-year-old activist heads the Global March Against Child Labour, a
combination of some 2,000 social groups and union organisations in 140 countries. He is
credited with helping tens of thousands of children forced into slavery by businessmen,
landowners and others to gain their freedom.

Something which was born in India has gone global and now we have a global movement
against child labour, he told Indian television.The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, Thorbjoern Jagland, said Malalas youth was not a factor in awarding the prize.

Our consideration has been to highlight the young who have stood up...and the old who have
worked for years against child labour and for childrens rights, he said.We have noticed that
she has received a long line of other prizes....The most important thing in the fight against
extremism is to give young people hope, he added.

Since her brush with death, Malala has become an international star. She received a standing
ovation in July 2013 for an address to the United Nations General Assembly in which she vowed
she would never be silenced.Malala said she was honoured to have been chosen as joint winner
of the Nobel Prize on Friday.

Im feeling honoured that Im being chosen as a Nobel Laureate, she said, speaking from
Birmingham, England, where she is now based. Im proud that Im the first Pakistani and first
young woman, or the first young person, who is getting this award.

Malala dedicated her Nobel peace prize to voiceless children around the world, and called on
the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers to attend the award ceremony for the sake of peace.The
award is for all the children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard, Malala told a
press conference, held at the end of the school day so she wouldnt miss class.

Standing on a box so she could reach the podium at Birminghams main library, the teenager
joked that winning the Nobel would not help her upcoming school exams.But she told an
audience that included her parents and two younger brothers: I felt more powerful and more
courageous because this award is not just a piece of metal or a medal you wear or an award you
keep in your room.

This is encouragement for me to go forward.Malala said she had already spoken to Satyarthi
she joked that she could not pronounce his name to discuss how they could work together,
and also try to reduce tensions between their two countries.

To that end, she urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi
to attend the Nobel award ceremony in December.There have also been concerns about exposing
a child to such a level of public exposure.

I used to say that I think I do not deserve the Nobel peace prize. I still believe that, Malala
said.But I believe it is not only an award for what Ive done but an encouragement for giving
me hope, for giving me the courage to go and continue this.