Malala Yousafzai (Pashto: ملاله یوسفزۍ; Urdu: ملالہ یوسف زئی Malālah Yūsafzay, born 12 July 1997)[2][4] is a Pakistani school student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her education and women's rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.[4][5] In early 2009, at the age of 11/12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC
detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control
of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls.[10] The following summer, a New York Times documentary[4] was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat.[11] Yousafzai began to rise in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television[12] and taking a position as chairperson of the District Child Assembly Swat.[13] She has since been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu[14] and has won Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.[5] A number of prominent individuals, including the Canadian Prime Minister, are supporting a petition to nominate Yousafzai for the Nobel Peace Prize.[15]
On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus.[16] In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition,[17] but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her,[18] but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin.[19]
Former British Prime Minister and current U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a United Nations petition[20] in Yousafzai's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" and demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. Brown said he would hand the petition to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari in November. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that 10 November will be celebrated as Malala Day.[21]
Yousafzai was shaped in large part by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is a poet, school owner and an educational activist himself, running a chain of schools known as the Khushal Public School, named after a famous Pashtun poet, Khushal Khan Khattak.[23] She once stated to an interviewer that she would like to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead.[4] It has also been indicated that she may have wanted to be a pilot.[24] Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, permitting her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.[25]
Yousafzai apparently started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008. Her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" Yousafzai told her audience in a speech that was covered by newspapers and television channels, throughout the region.[26]
“We had been covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn’t know much about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban,” Mirza Waheed, the former editor of BBC Urdu, said. Because they were concerned about Yousafzai's safety, BBC editors insisted that she use a pseudonym.[27] Her blog would be published under the byline "Gul Makai" ("corn flower" in Urdu),[29] a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale.[30][31]
On 3 January 2009, Yousafzai's first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog that would later make her famous. She would hand-write notes and then pass them on to a reporter who would scan and e-mail them.[27] The blog captures Yousafzai's troubled psychological state during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations take place, fewer girls show up to school, and finally, her school shuts down.
In Mingora, the Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. They had already blown up more than a hundred girls’ schools.[27] In the days leading up to the ban, Yousafzai's school principal had instructed her not to wear school uniforms anymore, but rather plain clothes that would not attract attention. Instead, Yousafzai wrote in her blog, "I decided to wear my favourite pink dress. Other girls in school were also wearing colourful dresses and the school presented a homely look."[10]
The night before the ban took effect was filled with the noise of artillery fire, waking Yousafzai multiple times. The following morning, she woke up late, but afterwards her friend came over and they discussed homework as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. That day, Yousafzai also read for the first time excerpts from her blog that had been published in a local newspaper. Her father, Ziauddin, recalled that someone had come up to him with the diary saying how wonderful it was, but he could only smile and not tell them it was actually written by his daughter.[10]
Helicopters of Pakistan military dropped toffees, but it did not last long. "Whenever we hear the choppers flying we run out and wait for the toffees but it does not happen anymore", Yousafzai wrote on 26 January. Two days later, Yousafzai traveled to Islamabad with her parents, but despite the havoc of the Swat Valley, she could not resist making comparisons: "It is my first visit to the city. It’s beautiful with nice bungalows and wide roads. But as compared to my Swat city it lacks natural beauty".[32] After Islamabad, the family traveled to Peshawar, where they stayed briefly with relatives. Yousafzai writes about her five-year-old brother who was playing in the lawn. Her father asked him what he was doing, and he replied "I am making a grave". The war was taking a toll on both her brothers. On the road to Bannu their bus hit a pothole, waking her 10-year-old brother, who asked their mother, "Was it a bomb blast?"[32] In Bannu, where women customarily wear veils, Yousafzai "refused to wear one on the grounds that I found it difficult to walk with it on".[32]
By February 2009, Yousafzai was back in Swat, but girls' schools were still closed. In solidarity, private schools for boys had decided not to open until 9 February, and notices appeared saying so. But no such notices had been displayed outside girls' schools.[32] On 7 February, Yousafzai and a brother returned to their hometown of Mingora, where the streets were deserted, and there was an "eerie silence". "We went to supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed", she writes in her blog. Their home was burglarized and their television stolen.[32]
On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus.[16] In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition,[17] but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her,[18] but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin.[19]
Former British Prime Minister and current U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a United Nations petition[20] in Yousafzai's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" and demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. Brown said he would hand the petition to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari in November. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that 10 November will be celebrated as Malala Day.[21]
Early life
Malala Yousafzai was born into a Muslim family of Pashtun ethnicity in July 1997 and given her first name, Malala, meaning "grief stricken",[10] after Malalai of Maiwand, a Pashtun poetess and warrior woman.[22] Her last name, Yousufzai, is that of a large Pashtun tribal confederation that is predominant in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where she grew up. At her house in Mingora, she lived with her two younger brothers, her parents, and two pet chickens.[4] She affectionately referred to the region as "my Swat."[10]Yousafzai was shaped in large part by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is a poet, school owner and an educational activist himself, running a chain of schools known as the Khushal Public School, named after a famous Pashtun poet, Khushal Khan Khattak.[23] She once stated to an interviewer that she would like to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead.[4] It has also been indicated that she may have wanted to be a pilot.[24] Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, permitting her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.[25]
Yousafzai apparently started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008. Her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" Yousafzai told her audience in a speech that was covered by newspapers and television channels, throughout the region.[26]
BBC blogger
At the beginning of 2009, Yousafzai had a chance to write for BBC Urdu when her father, Ziauddin, was asked by Abdul Hai Kakkar, a BBC reporter out of Pakistan, if any women at his school would write about life under the Taliban. At the time, Taliban militants led by Maulana Fazlullah were taking over the Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls’ education,[27] and women from going shopping.[5] Bodies of beheaded policemen were hanging from town squares.[27] At first, a girl named Aisha from her father's school agreed to write a diary, but then the girl's parents stopped her from doing it because they feared Taliban reprisals. The only alternative was Yousafzai, four years younger than the original volunteer, and in seventh grade at the time.[28] Editors at the BBC unanimously agreed.[27] It is unclear whether Yousafzai or her father first suggested that she write for the BBC.
“We had been covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn’t know much about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban,” Mirza Waheed, the former editor of BBC Urdu, said. Because they were concerned about Yousafzai's safety, BBC editors insisted that she use a pseudonym.[27] Her blog would be published under the byline "Gul Makai" ("corn flower" in Urdu),[29] a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale.[30][31]
On 3 January 2009, Yousafzai's first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog that would later make her famous. She would hand-write notes and then pass them on to a reporter who would scan and e-mail them.[27] The blog captures Yousafzai's troubled psychological state during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations take place, fewer girls show up to school, and finally, her school shuts down.
In Mingora, the Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. They had already blown up more than a hundred girls’ schools.[27] In the days leading up to the ban, Yousafzai's school principal had instructed her not to wear school uniforms anymore, but rather plain clothes that would not attract attention. Instead, Yousafzai wrote in her blog, "I decided to wear my favourite pink dress. Other girls in school were also wearing colourful dresses and the school presented a homely look."[10]
The night before the ban took effect was filled with the noise of artillery fire, waking Yousafzai multiple times. The following morning, she woke up late, but afterwards her friend came over and they discussed homework as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. That day, Yousafzai also read for the first time excerpts from her blog that had been published in a local newspaper. Her father, Ziauddin, recalled that someone had come up to him with the diary saying how wonderful it was, but he could only smile and not tell them it was actually written by his daughter.[10]
Banned from school
After the ban, the Taliban continued to destroy schools in the area. On 19 January, Yousafzai wrote "Five more schools have been destroyed, one of them was near my house. I am quite surprised, because these schools were closed so why did they also need to be destroyed?"[32] But Yousafzai did not stop thinking about her education. Five days later in her blog, she wrote about studying for her exams: "Our annual exams are due after the vacations but this will only be possible if the Taliban allow girls to go to school. We were told to prepare certain chapters for the exam but I do not feel like studying."[32] She also criticizes the Pakistani military's operations many times.Helicopters of Pakistan military dropped toffees, but it did not last long. "Whenever we hear the choppers flying we run out and wait for the toffees but it does not happen anymore", Yousafzai wrote on 26 January. Two days later, Yousafzai traveled to Islamabad with her parents, but despite the havoc of the Swat Valley, she could not resist making comparisons: "It is my first visit to the city. It’s beautiful with nice bungalows and wide roads. But as compared to my Swat city it lacks natural beauty".[32] After Islamabad, the family traveled to Peshawar, where they stayed briefly with relatives. Yousafzai writes about her five-year-old brother who was playing in the lawn. Her father asked him what he was doing, and he replied "I am making a grave". The war was taking a toll on both her brothers. On the road to Bannu their bus hit a pothole, waking her 10-year-old brother, who asked their mother, "Was it a bomb blast?"[32] In Bannu, where women customarily wear veils, Yousafzai "refused to wear one on the grounds that I found it difficult to walk with it on".[32]
By February 2009, Yousafzai was back in Swat, but girls' schools were still closed. In solidarity, private schools for boys had decided not to open until 9 February, and notices appeared saying so. But no such notices had been displayed outside girls' schools.[32] On 7 February, Yousafzai and a brother returned to their hometown of Mingora, where the streets were deserted, and there was an "eerie silence". "We went to supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed", she writes in her blog. Their home was burglarized and their television stolen.[32]
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