Off-script

NCPA October 10, 2024

On this day only a decade ago, Malala Yousafzai, aged just 17, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy around girls’ education.

She was born in Pakistan in the Swat Valley near the Hindu Kush mountains and attended a school run by her father.

When the Taliban seized control of the Swat Valley in 2008, they imposed their harsh rules, including closing girls’ schools. At 11 years old, Yousafzai joined her father at a local press club meeting and gave a fiery speech against the regime’s elimination of basic rights. She would go on to start writing an online diary for the BBC under another name.

In 2009, the Taliban was pushed out. It didn’t stop them from trying to assassinate her while on the bus going home from school in 2012, when she was 15 years old. Despite having been shot in the head, prompt medical treatment saved Malala’s life.

She’d go on to speak about the attempt in 2013 before the United Nations, and later published the hit read I am Malala, and launched a global nonprofit, The Malala Fund, to advocate for girls’ schooling.

Fittingly, Yousafzai heard she’d won the Nobel prize while in chemistry. She still finished the school day.

For more on Malala, check out this article from History.com.

NCPA