The prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded today to Malala Yousafzai by the European Parliament. A recognition of her fight for girls’ education. And the Nobel is perhaps for tomorrow.
Who is Malala?
In Pakistan, many young girls are threatened or killed by the Taliban for following the path to school. However, a glimmer of hope persists: Malala.
This young 16-year-old girl dared to defend girls’ right to education in Pakistan, which caused her to be attacked by the Taliban.
She suffered reprisals for having created a website where she defended the right of young girls to go to school and where she denounced the destructive actions of Taliban terrorists.
Having survived their attack, Malala has been supported in her fight for girls’ education by the highest international authorities, but also by countless ordinary people around the world. During her hospitalization in London, she received millions of messages of support.
Friday July 12, 2013
On the day of her 16th birthday, Malala presented herself to the UN to encourage all nations to offer school education to children.
There she presented to Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General, a petition signed by 300,000 people in which she demanded sufficient teachers, schools, and books to enable universal access to education in December 2015.
It must be recalled that 57 million children within the age to go to formal school were not enrolled in in 2013. Her project, of disconcerting simplicity, would cost to the equivalent of just two nuclear power plants. During what was called “Malala Day”, Malala expressed herself in front of 100 students from more than 80 countries.
Since her attack, which shocked the entire world, Malala has become the symbol of the struggle for the education of children, particularly of girls, everywhere in the world. According to this young defender of human rights: “the extremists are afraid of books and pencils. The power of education frightens them.”
