The Power of Youth Activism: Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was only 17 when she received a Nobel Prize for peace for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Malala was born in the region known as the Swat valley in Pakistan, which is close to the Afghanistan border. Her family ran several schools in the region, and as a girl, she was a good pupil and dreamt of becoming a doctor. Her region had at times shifted under the control of the Taliban, who imposed strict laws in the places that they control and banned the girls from taking education under the threat of punishment or death.

A documentary about Malala called Class dismissed is available here.

In her Nobel lecture, Malala Yousafzai humbly emphasized that she is acting on behalf of thousands, even millions of young girls in the world who are deprived of education, and she also invited several of her young friends from different parts of the world who are fighting for the same thing to be present there during the ceremony. She is currently continuing her struggle and has opened a school for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and this school offers education and training to girls between 14 and 18 years of age. As the last part of the story of Malala Yousafzai and the ability of one young person to influence the world, we are giving here her Nobel Peace Prize speech in full.