7 things you need to know about Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai
She is the youngest winner of the world's most prestigious prize.
Schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai, 17, wasn't the only winner this year. The acclaimed award was also given to Mr Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian child rights campaigner, BBC reported.
According to the Washington Post, there were 278 nominations this year.
"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," Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
"This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education."
Here are seven things to know about Malala:
1. She was shot in the head but survived
Malala with her family at an hospital in England soon after she was shot. PHOTO: AFP
She became Taleban's enemy No 1 as she began advocating education for girls.
She was already in the public eye, when a Taleban gunman boarded her school bus on in October 2012, asked "Who is Malala?", and shot her in the head.
She survived and then went to become a truly global figure.
2. She wrote a blog for BBC talking about her life under Taleban in Pakistan's Swat Valley
Prior to the shooting, she began blogging for the BBC's Urdu service in 2009 under a pseudonym, about life in Swat Valley, where girls' education was banned.
In 2007 the militants had taken over the area, which Malala affectionately called "My Swat", and imposed a brutal, bloody rule, reported AFP.
PHOTO: Reuters
Opponents were murdered, people were publicly flogged for supposed breaches of syariah law, women were banned from going to market, and girls were stopped from going to school.
3. She received another Taleban threat on Oct 6
She published her memoir this past week on the anniversary of her shooting, titled "I am Malala."
PHOTO: AFP
The Pakistan Taleban issued another threat against her life and then threatened to destroy any bookstore in Pakistan which sells the books.
Her response: "I'm never going to give up. They only shot a body but they cannot shoot my dreams," reported Elite Daily.
4. In her autobiography, she reveals a side of her that's a 'regular teenager'
PHOTO: AFP
She is a fan of Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber and the “Twilight” series of vampire romance novels.
5. This isn't her first Nobel Peace Prize nomination
PHOTO: Reuters
Last year, she was was nominated for the prize, but the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ended up bagging the accolade.
6. Everyone thought she got good grades because her father was the principal
When she did well at school people said it was because her father, Ziauddin, was the principal.
She once had to take an exam three times to prove that she could do it on her own.
PHOTO: AFP
7. Despite her courage, Malala admitted her fears after death threats became more frequent
PHOTO: Reuters
"Unlike my father, I took precautions. At night I would wait until everyone was asleep – my mother, my father, my brothers, the other family in our house and any guests we had from our village – then I'd check every single door and window.
"I'd go outside and make sure the front gate was locked. Then I would check the rooms, one by one."
Source: AFP
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