By Mia Khoudair
Malala Yousufzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan on the 12th of July 1997. She loved school as her father ran and taught an all-girls school in her village, but this was all before the Taliban decided to take over their village in Swat Valley in 2008. They enforced harsh punishments for those people who refused to obey their orders, one being that all girls couldn’t attend school anymore. When Malala was just 11 years old, she said goodbye to her classmates, not knowing when she would see them again. This is relatable to many girls in certain countries as they don’t have a right to education now just because they are girls.
In October 2012 Malala publicly took a stand for what she thought was right which was speaking out on behalf of girls and their right to learn. Therefore, this made Malala a target of the Taliban. on October the 9th 2012, on Malala’s way back home from school, a masked gunman boarded her school bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” He then went up to her with no hesitation and shot her on the left side of her head. 10 days later, Malala woke up in a hospital in Birmingham, England. The doctors and nurses that were treating Malala told her about the attack and that people all around the world were praying for her recovery.
In 2014, months after all of Malala's surgeries and rehabilitation, she decided to join her family in their new home in the United Kingdom where it was much safer. Malala gave herself two choices on how she was going to live the rest of her life. it was to live a quiet life or to make a change within all girl's education. Malala was still determined to continue her fight until every girl had the right to go to school. This has had a major impact on girls all around the world as they didn’t get the right to a safe education but with the help of Malala, she made a big difference in allowing girls to have an education. With Malala’s father, they established the Malala Fund which is a charity dedicated to allowing every girl to have an opportunity to receive the future they want. In recognition of their work, Malala received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate.
In 2018 Malala began studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford. And every day she fights to ensure that all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, and quality education. Now Malala travels to many countries to meet girls who are fighting poverty, wars, child marriage, and gender discrimination to receive an education. I personally feel that Malala is so dedicated, and she obviously wants no one to go through what she had to experience. Malala Fund is working so that their devastating stories can be heard all around the world.
Just one year ago, in 2020 Malala graduated from oxford university. After taking time to relax, she is more dedicated than ever to her fight for girls. With more than 130 million girls out of school today, there is more work to be done and Malala hopes to continue her fight for education and equality. Malala’s story has had a big impact for girls around the world, once she was told that she couldn’t attend school anymore Malala didn’t sit back and agree with the Taliban. She stood up and although it nearly cost her life, Malala is still fighting to this day for what she thinks is right and that is to ensure that all girls should have the right to a safe education where they can learn without feeling uncomfortable.