Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai and Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi wins Nobel Peace Prize. Compete with Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, the Pope and Vladimir Putin to win Nobel Prize and winner of the £690,000 (8m kronor or $1.11m) prize by the chairman of the Nobel committee Norway’s former Thorbjoern Jagland Today morning.
The prize was awarded jointly to Malala and Kailash
“for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”.
Malala is education campaigner who was shot in head on school bus in 2012 by a Taliban. After being shot she was transferred to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. She continued to campaign for girls’ education and being named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and last year publishing the memoir I am Malala. The UN designated July 12 – her birthday – as “Malala Day”, a day of global campaigning for a child’s right to receive an education.
In a statement, the Nobel committee said:
“Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations.
“This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”
Malala’s first cousin Mehmood ul Hassan said the whole family was excited about the award.
“We cannot express the level of our happiness in words. I just spoke to Ziauddin (Malala’s father), and her mother. I also spoke to Malala, and they are all very excited and happy about this,” he said. “Malala told me that Allah has blessed her with this award and she hopes this peace prize will help her cause [of educating girls], which is what she is focused on.”
One of Malala’s teachers, Shumaila Khan, said
“I have never seen a brave girl like her. She challenged the Taliban at a time when all men didn’t have the courage to oppose them,”
Satyarthi, the Nobel committee said,
“Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi’s tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” the committee said. “He has also contributed to the development of important international conventions on children’s rights.”
