Malala Yousafzai

Pakistan is located in South Asia, and is known to be a very deadly place to live. Despite this, it is a very populous country, holding more than 212 million people. Bordering countries include Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India. Recently, Pakistan, and the rest of the general area have been widely recognized on the news for the daily acts of terrorism that occur. One of the most well known terrorist groups in Pakistan is the Pakistan Taliban.

​The Pakistani Taliban (TTB) is notorious for deadly assaults, murders, and acts of violence. These infamies take place all around Pakistan, but most commonly near the Afghanistan border. This area often sees suicide bombings, and mass murders, which often end up killing innocent civilians. Arguably the most well known infamies that the TTB committed was the murder of innocent civilian, Malala Yousafzai.

The Pakistani Taliban on the streets

Malala as a young girl in Swat Valley, Pakistan

​Malala was born in 1997 in the Swat Valley area of Pakistan. It is said that Swat Valley is a beautiful area, that was a common tourist spot. However, this all began to change as the Taliban began to take the area over. Simultaneous with this, Malala’s dad,  Ziauddin Yousafzai, was the head of a school in Swat. Despite commonality, Malala attended this school, defying what the stereotypical girl her age did in Swat. As Swat was being progressively taken over, Malala was an inside source for BBC as to what life was actually like under the ruling of the TTB.

​The Taliban often made threats toward Malala and her family, because they were adamant about the fact that a girl attending school was illegal. Threat after threat, Malala still attended school, because she believed that nothing was to stop a girl from receiving an education. In 2011, she was nominated for the National Youth Peace Prize because of her activist work regarding girls education.
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Only a short year later, on October 9, 2012, Malala’s life was forever changed. She was on the bus with her fellow school friends, heading home. In her book, Malala says that the bus came to an impromptu stop in the middle of the street. Initially, the girls were confused, but not too worried, but that all changed in a matter of seconds. A member of the TTB walked onto the bus, and asked which one of them was Malala Yousafzai. Malala immediately knew that this was one of the men that had been sending her daily death threats. Naturally, everyone turned towards her, making it obvious that she was who the man was looking for. He then shot her in the head and neck, also injuring two other girls.

Malala in England after waking up from her coma.

​Left in a near death situation, Malala was quickly brought to the hospital, eventually being transferred to Birmingham, England. All alone in a foreign country, Malala lay in an induced coma, after multiple surgeries in an effort to keep her alive.

​Malala reviving the Nobel Peace Prize

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The months that followed included other minor surgeries, physical therapy, and adjusting to new life in England. To this day, Malala says that she misses living in Pakistan, but still keeps in close relation to her old friends. Following the attack, Malala never gave up, she continued fighting for girls education and used her own personal experiences to help others. In fact, in 2014, Malala was the youngest ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize! It is her advocacy that has made her such a well-known female in this world, and it is her persistence that it making a change.

The biggest way that Malala is making a change is through the creation of her non profit organization, the Malala Fund. Malala created this organization with the help of her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who shares similar values and morals to Malala. This fund was created in effort to raise awareness regarding the sparsity of girls education throughout the world. The statistics prove that the spread of girls who are not in school, is wide. In fact, upwards of 130 million girls worldwide don’t attend school. The countries that the organization works most heavily with are Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey, and Pakistan, Malala’s home country. “Education activists like Malala and Ziauddin present the strongest challenge to barriers that keep girls out of school. Threats to girls’ education - like poverty, war, and gender discrimination - differ between countries and communities. Local educators and activists understand challenges in their communities and are best placed to identify, innovate and advocate for policy and programmatic solutions.” (Malala Fund). Malala has groups of activists working throughout the the countries in which the frequency of girls education is the worst.
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Malala works alongside many other major organizations who have comparable goals to that of the Malala Fund. The educational gap between girls and boys is very profound. From childhood, Malala never let anyone tell her that she did not deserve an education. Despite reviving countless death threats from the Taliban and other men in her country, Malala remained strong. She persevered through the shooting, and came out stronger than before. Today, she continues to fight for girls education, showing how she truly is making the best of the worst.

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​“I believe we will see every girl in school in my lifetime." - Malala

“I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is the story of many girls." - Malala

​Malala's Fund: https://www.malala.org​ 
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Malala's Father talking about her life

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Sources:
http://www.lithiumagazine.com/2017/07/malala-getting-to-know-young-heroine.html
https://www.biography.com/people/malala-yousafzai-21362253
http://time.com/3490769/malala-yousafzai-the-day-i-woke-up-in-the-hospital/
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/asia/pakistan-taliban-profile-2016/index.html