At age eleven, most girls are obsessing over which pair of jeans to wear on their first day of middle school. By age fifteen, their biggest worry is that the cute boy in math class won’t ask them to homecoming. By the time they turn seventeen, most girls can’t wait to graduate high school. Malala Yousafzai, however, is not most girls.
Malala was born in 1997 in a town in the Swat District of northwestern Pakistan called Mingora. In 2009, this region became the site of the Battle of Swat, a violent struggle for power between the Pakistani Army and Taliban militants.
Among other controls, the Taliban banned girls from attending school. Pakistan already has the 2nd highest rate of children not in school. Malala’s father, who managed a school himself, was a prominent activist for education, and Malala followed her father’s footsteps.
At age eleven, Malala started writing a blog for BBC Urdu, expressing her fears and those of her classmates regarding a possible Taliban attack and her desire to continue her education.
I am afraid – 3 January 2009
“I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taliban’s edict.
On my way from school to home I heard a man saying ‘I will kill you’. I hastened my pace… to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.”
I may not go to school again – 14 January 2009
“I was in a bad mood while going to school because winter vacations are starting from tomorrow. The principal announced the vacations but did not mention the date the school was to reopen.
“The girls were not too excited about vacations because they knew if the Taliban implemented their edict [banning girls’ education] they would not be able to come to school again. I am of the view that the school will one day reopen but while leaving I looked at the building as if I would not come here again.”
Although she initially published her diary under a pseudonym, as Malala began to openly campaign for female education, her identity as the blog’s author became known. In 2011, she was awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize.
A year later, at age 15, she became the deliberate target of a Taliban attack. The bus carrying her home from school was stopped by a masked gunman who asked for Malala and shot her in the head. The bullet entered beneath Malala’s skin, traveled down the length of her head, and lodged into her shoulder. She was taken in critical condition to the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, and was released three months later with a titanium plate and a cochlear implant in her skull.
Malala did not let the threat on her life or her injuries hold her back. Instead, she continued to spread her message. Malala’s attack drew the world’s attention, and in the ensuing weeks over 2 million people signed a right to education petition that resulted in the ratification of Pakistan’s first Right to Free Compulsory Education Bill.
Malala continued her education at Edgbaston High School in the UK, and she started the Malala Fund to promote girls’ education and demand change. In 2014, she met with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in an attempt to drive him to push for the freeing of 200 girls held by Boko Haram Islamist militants. In December of the same year, at age 17, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Malala’s re-appearance on Time’s List of Most Influential Teens, along with Kendall and Kylie Jenner, has caused recent media buzz. She is an extraordinary young woman fighting to give other young women like her a chance at education.
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