Malala Yousafzai

Growing up Malala loved to visit her fathers classroom. He was a teacher who wanted every child, boys and girls, to receive an education. She also enjoyed helping her mother cook and tend to their garden. In school she learned languages, math, science, religion and more. Her fathers schools grew and so did income for the family. Malala listened to CD’s, devoured books, like Twilight, and watched television.

By the time she was 10 years old, a violent group called the Taliban had brought war to her village in the Swat Valley. They restricted women’s rights; This would include barring girls from attending school by destroying them. Malala was one of the brightest in her class and continued to attend school each day while the Pakistan Army fought for their people. In 2008 the Pakistan Army had left and the Taliban, again, began to destroy schools. It was announced the girls’ schools would not be reopening. 

At 11 years old, Malala had given a speech for local reporters. Her father thought she would be the perfect candidate for the BBC to interview about the school closings and life in Pakistan. The family worried about safety, so Malala wrote the blog for BBC under a false name. Awareness spread earning her much attention from the New York Times and other local talk shows. By the time schools opened again Malala had a new goal: to be a politician. Her fame earned her a nomination from the Dutch KidsRights foundations’ International Children’s Peace Prize. She didn’t win but was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize (Later changed to the National Malala Peace Prize). Not all attention was positive and in 2012 a member of the Taliban boarded Malala’s school bus with a gun. She was shot in the head waking up 10 days later in a Birmingham, England hospital.