PINNACLE March 2016 | Page 4

"I am Malala."

Malala Yousafzai

was born on the 12th of July in 1997, and she seemed to be destined for greatness. Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who had always loved learning, named her after the Pashtun heroine; Malalai. As it turned out, Malala would soon become just as much of a hero as the hero she was named after. She shared the same passion for learning and school as her father did, arguably even more so than him. In 2009, she began to write a blog to the BBC Urdu Service under a pseudonym about fears that the Taliban were plotting to attack her and her school.

In 2011, Malala then went on to receive Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize. In response to her rising popularity and sudden recognition for her deeds of standing up for education and women’s rights, the Taliban voted to kill her. On October 9th of the year 2012, a gunman of the Taliban scoured the school bus that Malala was riding in, threatening to kill everyone aboard the vehicle if she did not present herself. With courage, she stood up, and was shot by the man. The bullet went through her head, neck and shoulder, and two of her friends were also injured in the attack. Miraculously, she survived the attack, but was in critical condition. She was transported to Birmingham in the United Kingdom for special treatment, and was not discharged from the hospital until January of

2013. Against all odds, she had managed to survive.

Since then, she has established The Malala Fund, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10th, 2014, alongside with Indian

children’s rights and education advocate Kailash Satyarthi. Malala then

contributed her $1.1 Million prize money to financing the creation of a

secondary schools for all girls in Pakistan. In 2015, Malala

turned 18 years old in Lebanon, opening the “Malala

Yousafzai All-Girl’s School”

near the Syrian border,

"I am Malala."

by Jenn Find