Name: Malala Yousafzai

Other Name: Gul Makai

Famous for: Being the Youngest Nobel Laureate

Nationality: Pakistani

Date of Birth: July 12, 1997

Age: 20 Years

Sun Sign: Cancer

Height: 1.61 M

Born Place: Mingora

Father's Name: Ziauddin Yousafzai

Mother's Name: Tor Pekai Yousafzai

Religion: Sunni Islam

Net Worth: $3 Million (as of Nov 12, 2016)

Introduction

Malala Yousafzai is the youngest girl who spoke against the Taliban while she was in Pakistan and she advocated the idea that girls should be allowed to get education. For her audacity to speak against these powerful sources for their right she was shot dead in 2012 by the Taliban gunman. But, she courageously survived and later on she took up the idea to become an advocate of girl education for which she also received the Noble Peace Prize.

About Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is a social activist who advocates the idea of women's rights and her audacity and enthusiasm to good to the society won her Noble Peace Prize in 2014 which she received along with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist. She is particularly working to spread the awareness of women education in the Swat valley of Pakistan. She had this zeal to express her feelings towards the education of women from the early age and that she started expressing that feeling in an anonymous blog at the age of 11. She was born in a family of progressive thinkers and educationists.

Her anonymous Blogging and the outcome

It was quite mature for her age to think and then express her views so vividly to act as an impetus to palpably understand about an issue. Without fearing she wrote how the Taliban is preventing girls from going to school and how they are trying to bring the control of the valley into their own hands. Gradually over the period of time her blogs became popular and she soon became a women activist advocating the idea of women education.

The encouragement that she got from her father made her express her views more vocally. She wrote her opinion related to women's education in all her blogs. Apparently it irked the Taliban and she started getting death threats and one day she was shot by a Taliban gunman in her head while she was returning from home. But, the audacious girl miraculously survived the battle that she fought with life.

Early Life and Childhood

She was the eldest child of Ziauddin Yousafzai (father) and Toorpekai Yousafzai (mother) and was born on 12th July 1997. Her family ran under their purview a chain of schools and she had two younger brothers. Her father too is an education activist and he taught her Urdu, English and Pashto. She was a very bright child and her father had the intuition from the very early age that she has something special to give to the world because of which he always encouraged her to fearlessly express her views.

Her Journey of Activism

It was in 2008 when she was 11 years old that she started being vocal about the women education rights. While addressing a Press Club in Peshawar she asked Taliban to snatch the education right for women if they can. Her father encouraged to start blogging about the education of girls under an anonymous name "Gul Makai" for the BBC Urdu website. This idea of blogging against the Taliban by a school girl was initiated by Aamer Ahmed Khan of BBC Urdu.

Even though the idea of writing blog against the Taliban was a very risky one, her father himself encouraged her to do so. The 11 year old Malala posted her first blog entry on 3rd January 2009 and in her clog she wrote on why only a few girls are attending school and how the Taliban is making schools to shut.

When her school was reopened she continued with her blog writing and after appearing in her exams she ended blogging in March 2009. In the beginning, though she was writing those blogs anonymously, her identity was revealed later on. Soon she was famous person and also received an award from the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Also, she was often called upon to deliver speeches.

Even though she wrote the blog anonymously, her identity was later revealed and she became a popular teenage activist who was often called to give speeches. This has agitated the Taliban and they started giving her death threats. On 9th October 2012, a gunman from Taliban shot her into head while she was returning from school. The bullet penetrated through her head and the neck and ended up in the shoulder. Two of her friends she was accompanying were also injured.

But, even after this cruel penetration of heavy bullets, she survived! Immediately after the attack she was shifted to the Peshawar hospital and was treated and after this she was shifted to Birmingham, England so as to get best treatment. Soon she recovered and then continued with her studies at Edgbaston High School in Birmingham. Her courageous battle with life and also with the Taliban for causing hindrance in the education of girls brought her support from around the world which gave impetus to her agenda of fighting for the education of women.

Malala Day

On her 16th birthday in 2013 she was invited at the United Nations to give a speech. Later on, the UN named this day as Malala Day. In the same year she also released her autobiography – "'I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban". After that also she kept her activist spirit alive and spoke at the Harward University and Oxford Union in 2013. Also, in 2014 she spoke at the London summit in favor of the girl education.

Awards & Achievements

• In October 2012, she was decorated with Pakistan's third-highest civilian bravery award of Pakistan called as Sitara-e-Shujaat.
• In November 2012 she also received Mother Teresa Awards for Social Justice.
• In 2013 she was presented with Clinton Global Citizen Award.
• She was honored by the European Parliament with the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2013.
• She was also awarded in 2014 with the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi who fights against the suppression of children.

Point to be Noted

She is the youngest person ever to receive noble prize and the only Pakistani to win a noble prize.