PERREAULT Magazine NOV | DEC 2016 | Page 20

MALALA

Malala was shot by the Taliban in 2012 simply for daring to go to school.

Malala Yousafzai is an educational campaigner from Swat Valley, Pakistan, and winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to her, along with Kailash Satyarthi, for their joint work in the field of children’s rights. Malala was born in 1997, in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, where she grew up. Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai named her after Malalai, a Pashtun heroine. Ziauddin, who has always loved learning, ran a school in Swat adjacent to the family's home. He was known as an advocate for education in Pakistan, which has the second highest number of out-of-school children in the world.

He became an outspoken opponent of the Taliban efforts to restrict education and stop girls from going to school. It is apparent now that his love for children and their equal rights to education was passed down to Malala.

A TEEN

with a cause

by Brigitte Perreault

and Jean Palamar