Malala Yousafzai is a 16 year old Pakistani school pupil and education activist from the town Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's north western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her activism for rights to eductaion and for women, especially for where she lived, as the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school school. At the age of 11, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC talking about her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for 22 girls. The New York Times created a documentary, filming her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, starting the Second Battle of Swat. Yousafzai willingly gave interviews in print and television, and she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu.
9th October 2012, Yousafzai boarded her school bus in her home town, where a gunman asked which one was Yousafzai and then shot her three times. For days she was in critical conditions and was unconscious, but it soon improved allowing her to be transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father.
The assassination attempt caused national and international support for Yousafzai. United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education launched a UN petition in Yousafzai's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" and demanding that every child worldwide would be in school by the end of 2015. Yousafzai was featured in Time Magazine, under as one of 'The 100 Most Influential People in the World'. She was also the winner of the first ever Pakistan's national Youth Peace Prize and was the youngest nominee for 2013 Noble Peace Prize.
From reading about Malala Yousafzai, I have learnt about the giant impact she has made on society and how she has helped in getting not only women in education, but all children around the world.
