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Malala Yousafzai

Girls’ education activist Malala Yousafzai survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban at age 15 and is the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

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1997-present

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The 26-year-old began advocating for peace in the region soon after the conflict began on October 7. She witnessed violence while growing up in Pakistan and became a target, herself, surviving an assassination attempt as a teenager, after speaking up against the Taliban’s prohibition on girls’ education. Last month, Yousafzai said she donated $300,000 to three charities helping Palestinians and encouraged the public to sign a petition demanding Israel stop attacking schools and both sides release their child hostages.

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Early life and activism, shot by the taliban, u.n. speech on malala day, malala fund.

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Malala Yousafzai, often known simply as Malala, is a Pakistani girls’ education activist who survived an assassination attempt at age 15 and became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Yousafzai began advocating for girls’ education when she was still a child, which resulted in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. In October 2012, a gunman shot Yousafzai when she was traveling home from school. The activist survived, became a Nobel laureate at age 17, and continues her work through her international nonprofit, Malala Fund. She has written several books, including the best-selling memoir I Am Malala , and helped produce the 2022 Oscar-nominated documentary short Stranger at the Gate .

FULL NAME: Malala Yousafzai BORN: July 12, 1997 BIRTHPLACE: Mingora, Pakistan SPOUSE: Asser Malik (2021-present) ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan, located in the country’s northern Swat Valley. For the first few years of her life, Yousafzai’s hometown remained a popular tourist spot that was known for its summer festivals. The area began to change as the Taliban tried to take control.

Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin, is an educator, but her mother, Tor Pekai, was illiterate until she was in her 40s. The couple always supported their daughter’s education. Malala attended a school that her father had founded.

After the Taliban began attacking girls schools in Swat, 11-year-old Yousafzai gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in September 2008. The title of her talk was, “How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right to Education?” In early 2009, Yousafzai began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban’s threats to deny her an education. In order to hide her identity, she used the name Gul Makai. However, her identity was revealed that December.

With a growing public platform, Yousafzai continued to speak out about her right, and the right of all women, to an education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.

Yousafzai and her family learned that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her because of her activism. Although Malala was frightened for the safety of her father—an anti-Taliban activist—she and her family initially felt that the fundamentalist group would not actually harm a child.

On October 9, 2012, when 15-year-old Yousafzai was riding a bus with friends on their way home from school, a masked gunman boarded the bus and demanded to know which girl was Yousafzai. When friends looked toward her, Yousafzai was given away. The gunman fired at her, hitting the girl in the left side of her head; the bullet then traveled down her neck. Two other girls were also injured in the attack.

The shooting left Yousafzai in critical condition, so she was flown to a military hospital in Peshawar. A portion of her skull was removed to treat her swelling brain. To receive further care, she was transferred to Birmingham, England, which became her family’s new home.

Once she was in the United Kingdom, Yousafzai was taken out of a medically induced coma. Although she would require multiple surgeries—including repair of a facial nerve to fix the paralyzed left side of her face—she had suffered no major brain damage. In March 2013, she was able to begin attending school in Birmingham.

The shooting resulted in a massive outpouring of support for Yousafzai that continued during her recovery and today. Although the Taliban still considers Yousafzai a target, she remains a staunch advocate for the power of education.

Nearly two years after the attack, Pakistani authorities arrested 10 Taliban militants for their part in the assassination attempt. Most were acquitted in April 2015 due to lack of evidence, meanwhile two men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Ehsanullah Ehsan, the alleged shooter who is also connected to other terrorist activities, was arrested in February 2017 but escaped custody in early 2020.

Nine months after being shot by the Taliban, Yousafzai gave a speech at the United Nations on July 12, 2013—her 16 th birthday. It was her first speaking in public since the attack. Yousafzai highlighted her primary causes of education and women’s rights, while urging world leaders to introduce peace and prosperity, as well as fund mandatory education for all. She encouraged other activists to continue speaking out and appealed to individuals to end any prejudices they hold:

“The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women... Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.”

Of the Taliban’s attack, Yousafzai said, “They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed... The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear, and hopelessness died. Strength, power, and courage were born.”

The United Nations declared July 12 “Malala Day” in honor of the young leader’s activism to ensure education for all children. The U.N. Secretary-General at the time, Ban Ki-moon, said at the event : “Malala chose to mark her 16 th birthday at the United Nations, celebrating her cause for education... No child should have to die for going to school. Nowhere should teachers fear to teach or children fear to learn. Together, we can change the picture.”

Two months after Yousafzai was shot, UNESCO and the Pakistan government created the Malala Fund for Girls’ Education. Then, in 2013, Yousafzai and her father launched the similarly named nonprofit, Malala Fund, that works to ensure girls around the world have access to 12 years of free and safe education.

The nonprofit primarily supports its Education Champion Network—previously known as its Gulmakai Network, a reference to the pseudonym Yousafzai used when she wrote for the BBC—of local activists in places where many girls don’t receive secondary education. The network has grown to include 10 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Turkey.

For her 18 th birthday, in July 2015, Yousafzai continued to take action on global education by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. Its expenses covered by the Malala Fund, the school was designed to admit nearly 200 girls from the ages of 14 to 18. “Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world’s children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets,” Yousafzai proclaimed in one of the school’s classrooms.

That day, she wrote on The Malala Fund website:

“The shocking truth is that world leaders have the money to fully fund primary AND secondary education around the world—but they are choosing to spend it on other things, like their military budgets. In fact, if the whole world stopped spending money on the military for just eight days, we could have the $39 billion still needed to provide 12 years of free, quality education to every child on the planet.”

In January 2018, Apple announced it was partnering with Malala Fund to help provide education to more than 100,000 girls around the world. The company pledged to contribute money and technology, as well as assist with curriculum and policy research.

According to the Malala Fund website, the organization has invested more than $47 million in total across its various programs.

Yousafzai has received a host of awards and honors to date. Chief among them is the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, which she received along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.” Yousafzai, then just 17 years old, became the youngest person—and first Pakistani—to receive the Nobel Peace Prize when the announcement was made in October 2014. It was her second time being nominated for the prestigious award.

In congratulating Yousafzai, then–Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement : “She is [the] pride of Pakistan, she has made her countrymen proud. Her achievement is unparalleled and unequaled. Girls and boys of the world should take lead from her struggle and commitment.” Then–U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Yousafzai as “a brave and gentle advocate of peace who, through the simple act of going to school, became a global teacher.”

Additionally, Yousafzai was awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize in 2011. The award has since been renamed in her honor as the National Malala Peace Prize. She is also the recipient of:

• the 2012 Mother Teresa Memorial Award,
• France’s 2013 Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom,
• the European Parliament’s 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought,
• the 2014 Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and
• the 2018 Gleitsman Award from Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership.

She was shortlisted for Time ’s Person of the Year in 2012 (the year then-President Barack Obama earned the honor) and named to the Time 100 the following year.

In April 2017, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Yousafzai as a U.N. Messenger of Peace, the youngest in history, to promote girls’ education. The appointment is the highest honor given by the United Nations for an initial period of two years.

That same month, Yousafzai was also given honorary Canadian citizenship. She is the sixth person and the youngest in the country’s history to receive the honor.

I Am Malala , Other Books, and Documentary

Yousafzai has written several books, including the October 2013 memoir I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban . It became an international bestseller. The book was abridged in 2014 for a young readers edition and again in an illustrated version for kids as 2018’s Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls’ Rights .

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

The international activist has published two more children’s books about her life: Malala’s Magic Pencil in October 2017 and My Name Is Malala in October 2022.

Her second book for adults released in 2018. We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World explores Yousafzai’s story as well as the stories of girls she met in her travels to refugee camps in Colombia, Guatemala, Syria, and Yemen.

Yousafzai gave the world more insight into her daily life in the 2015 documentary He Named Me Malala . Directed by Davis Guggenheim ( An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman ), the film gave viewers an intimate look into the life of Yousafzai, her family, and her commitment to supporting education for girls around the world.

In April 2023, Yousafzai and publisher Atria Books announced she is working on a new memoir. Atria described the untitled work as a “breathtaking story of recovery and search of identity, a candid exploration of her coming-of-age in the public spotlight, and an intimate look at her life today.”

Through all her activism, Yousafzai remained committed to her own education. She graduated from Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham, England, in July 2017. She continued her studies at Oxford University that fall.

On March 29, 2018, the Oxford student returned to Pakistan for the first time since her brutal 2012 attack. Not long after arriving, Yousafzai met with then–Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and delivered an emotional speech at his office.“In the last five years, I have always dreamed of coming back to my country,” she said . “I never wanted to leave.” Yousafzai also visited her former home and a military-run cadet college in Mingora during her four-day trip.

In June 2020, Yousafzai graduated from Oxford University with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. The following March, Apple announced the start of a multiyear programming partnership with the activist. The company stated that Yousafzai and her production company Extracurricular would create original programming across multiple genres for Apple TV+ that draw on her ability to inspire people around the world. “I couldn’t ask for a better partner than Apple to help bring these stories to life. I’m grateful for the opportunity to support women, young people, writers, and artists in reflecting the world as they see it,” she said .

Separately, Yousafzai served as an executive producer on the 2022 short documentary film Stranger at the Gate , which tells the story of how a former U.S. marine planned to commit a terrorist attack at an Indiana mosque before meeting the congregants there and finding his extreme beliefs challenged. Stranger at the Gate was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film, leading Yousafzai to attend the 2023 Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles with her husband. “It’s been so surreal. There are so many beautiful, gorgeous people by my side,” she told ABC in a red carpet interview.

Although her film didn’t win, Yousafzai was involved in a memorably awkward moment with host Jimmy Kimmel . During a segment in which Kimmel read fake viewer questions to celebrity attendees, he asked the Nobel Prize winner about the viral “spitgate” controversy involving actors Harry Styles and Chris Pine . When Yousafzai gave an evasive response, Kimmel commended her and jokingly quipped that the winner of the night is “Malala Land,” a reference to the 2016 musical La La Land . Although many viewers felt the exchange was disrespectful, Yousafzai addressed the situation with a tweet that simply said, “Treat people with kindness.”

While attending Oxford in summer 2018, Yousafzai met Asser Malik, who was visiting friends on campus. Despite Malala’s reservations about marriage— she said in a 2021 essay she believed she wouldn’t marry until she was at least 35 years old, if at all—the pair wed in November 2021 in Birmingham.

In addition to their educational backgrounds—similar to Yousafzai, Malik earned a degree in economics and political science in 2012—the pair have bonded over their mutual love of cricket. Malik works for the sport’s governing body in Pakistan and is the co-founder of an amateur league.

Yousafzai said in 2021 her time together with Malik helped her see that she could “remain true to my values of equality, fairness, and integrity” while simultaneously being in a relationship. “I still don’t have all the answers for the challenges facing women—but I believe that I can enjoy friendship, love, and equality in marriage,” she told British Vogue .

• Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.
• If I win [the] Nobel Peace Prize, it would be a great opportunity for me, but if I don’t get it, it’s not important because my goal is not to get Nobel Peace Prize, my goal is to get peace, and my goal is to see the education of every child.
• Dear friends, on the 9 th of October, 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed.
• I want people to remember that Pakistan is my country. Even if its people hate me, I will still love it.
• I am only talking about education, women’s rights, and peace. I want poverty to end in tomorrow’s Pakistan. I want every girl in Pakistan to go to school.
• I am still the old Malala. I still try to live normally, but yes, my life has changed a lot.
• Education is neither eastern nor western. Education is education, and it’s the right of every human being.

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Malala Yousafzai

At age eleven, Malala Yousafzai was already advocating for the rights of women and girls. As an outspoken proponent for girls’ right to education, Yousafzai was often in danger because of her beliefs. However, even after being shot by the Taliban, she continued her activism and founded the Malala Fund with her father. By age seventeen, Yousafzai became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her work.

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997 in Mingora, Pakistan. Mingora is the largest city in the Swat Valley of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan. Yousafzai was the first of three children born to Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai. Although it was not always easy to raise a girl child in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai’s father insisted that she received all of the same opportunities afforded to boy children. Her father was a teacher and education advocate that ran a girls’ school in their village. Due to his influence, Yousafzai was passionate about knowledge from a very young age, and she would often waddle into her father’s classes before she could even talk. However, by the time she was ten years old, Taliban extremists began to take control of the Swat Valley and many of her favorite things were banned. Girls were no longer able to attend school, and owning a television, playing music and dancing were all prohibited. Girl’s education was specifically targeted by the Taliban and by the end of 2008 they had destroyed over 400 schools. At eleven years old, Yousafzai decided to stand up to the Taliban.

Yousafzai started by blogging anonymously for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in early 2009. She used the penname, “Gul Makai,” and spoke about her life under Taliban rule and how much she wanted to attend school. Her first BBC diary entry entitled, “I Am Afraid,” detailed her nightmares about a full-blown war in her hometown. Her nightmares started to become reality, as Yousafzai and her family were soon forced to leave their home due to rising tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban. This did not stop Yousafzai from advocating for her right to attend school. Over the next few years, she and her father began speaking out on behalf of girls’ education in the media. They campaigned for Pakistani girls’ access to a free quality education. By 2011, Yousafzai was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. Although she did not win, that same year she earned Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. Yousafzai was now a household name. However, this also made her a target.

On October 9, 2012, fifteen-year old Yousafzai was on the bus returning from school with her friends. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” When they identified Yousafzai, they shot her in the head. Fortunately, she was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital and then taken to an intensive care unit in England. After ten days in a medically induced coma, Yousafzai woke up in a hospital in Birmingham, England. She had suffered no major brain damage, but the left side of her face was paralyzed, and she would require many reparative surgeries and rehabilitation. After months of medical treatment, Yousafzai was able to return to her family that now lived in England. In March 2013, Yousafzai began attending school in Birmingham. Although she was now able to attend school in England, she decided to keep fighting “until every girl could go to school.” [1] On her sixteenth birthday, Yousafzai spoke at the United Nations in New York. That same year she published her autobiography entitled, “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.” She was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament for her activism.

In 2014, Yousafzai and her father established the Malala Fund to internationally support and advocate for women and girls. Through her charity, she met with Syrian refugees in Jordan, young women students in Kenya, and spoke out in Nigeria against the terrorist group Boko Haram that abducted young girls to stop them from going to school. In December of 2014, Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. At age seventeen, she became the youngest person to be named a Nobel laureate. Since then, Yousafzai has continued to advocate for the rights of women and girls. The Malala Fund advocates for quality education for all girls by funding education projects internationally, partnering with global leaders and local advocates, and pioneering innovative strategies to empower young women. Yousafzai is currently studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford.

[1] Yousafzai , Malala. “Malala's Story: Malala Fund.” Malala Fund. Accessed March 14, 2020. https://malala.org/malalas-story.

• Brenner, Marie. “Malala Yousafzai: The 15-Year-Old Pakistani Girl Who Wanted More from Her Country.” Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair, January 29, 2015. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2013/04/malala-yousafzai-pakistan-profile.
• The Nobel Foundation. “Malala Yousafzai: Biographical.” NobelPrize.org. Accessed March 14, 2020. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/biographical/
• Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb.  I Am Malala: the Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013.
• Yousafzai , Malala. “Malala's Story: Malala Fund.” Malala Fund. Accessed March 14, 2020. https://malala.org/malalas-story.

Photo: Public domain.

MLA – Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Malala Yousafzai.” National Women’s History Museum, 2020. Date accessed.

Chicago – Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Malala Yousafzai.” National Women’s History Museum. 2020. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/malala-yousafzai.

• BBC News. “Profile: Malala Yousafzai.” BBC, August 17, 2017. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23241937.
• Time Magazine. “Malala Yousafzai: 100 Women of the Year.” Time, March 5, 2020. https://time.com/5793780/malala-yousafzai-100-women-of-the-year/.

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“I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is the story of many girls.”

Malala's Story

Learn how malala began her fight for girls — from an education activist in pakistan to the youngest nobel peace prize laureate — and how she continues her campaign through malala fund., i was born in mingora, pakistan on july 12, 1997..

Welcoming a baby girl is not always cause for celebration in Pakistan — but my father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was determined to give me every opportunity a boy would have.

My father was a teacher and ran a girls’ school in our village.

I loved school. But everything changed when the Taliban took control of our town in Swat Valley. The extremists banned many things — like owning a television and playing music — and enforced harsh punishments for those who defied their orders. And they said girls could no longer go to school.

In January 2008 when I was just 11 years old, I said goodbye to my classmates, not knowing when — if ever — I would see them again.

I spoke out publicly on behalf of girls and our right to learn. And this made me a target.

In October 2012, on my way home from school, a masked gunman boarded my school bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” He shot me on the left side of my head.

I woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. The doctors and nurses told me about the attack — and that people around the world were praying for my recovery.

After months of surgeries and rehabilitation, I joined my family in our new home in the U.K.

It was then I knew I had a choice: I could live a quiet life or I could make the most of this new life I had been given. I determined to continue my fight until every girl could go to school.

With my father, who has always been my ally and inspiration, I established Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses. In recognition of our work, I received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate.

I began studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford.

And every day I fight to ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education.

I travel to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination to go to school. Malala Fund is working so that their stories, like mine, can be heard around the world.

We invest in developing country educators and activists, like my father, through Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network. And we hold leaders accountable for their promises to girls.

I graduated from Oxford University!

I will always treasure my time at Lady Margaret Hall — the lectures, club meetings, balls and late nights (some spent finishing papers, some just chatting with friends in the dorm). Although a global pandemic meant I spent my final months as a university student in my parents' house, I'm grateful that I was able to complete my education. After taking time to relax, I am more dedicated than ever to my fight for girls.

With more than 130 million girls out of school today, there is more work to be done. I hope you will join my fight for education and equality. Together, we can create a world where all girls can learn and lead.

Support Malala’s fight for girls’ education

With more than 130 million girls out of school today, she needs your help breaking down the barriers that hold girls back.

Your gift today is an investment in Malala Fund programmes that help girls around the world go to school.

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Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai became an international symbol of the fight for girls’ education after she was shot in 2012 for opposing Taliban restrictions on female education in her home country of Pakistan. In 2009, Malala had begun writing a blog under a pseudonym about the increasing military activity in her home town and about fears that her school would be attacked. After her identity was revealed, Malala and her father Ziauddin continued to speak out for the right to education. The Taliban’s attack on Malala on 9 October 2012 as she was returning home from school with her friends received worldwide condemnation. In Pakistan, over 2 million people signed a right to education petition, and the National Assembly ratified Pakistan's first Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill. In 2013, Malala and her father co-founded the Malala Fund to bring awareness to the social and economic impact of girls' education and to empower girls to demand change. In December 2014, she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Secretary-General António Guterres designated Malala as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2017 to help raise awareness of the importance of girl’s education.

FOCUS AREA: GIRLS’ EDUCATION

Quality education is the foundation for improving people’s lives and for sustainable development. Major progress has been made towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools, particularly for women and girls. The world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys. However, few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education. Moreover, 57 million children still remain out of school. Bolder efforts are needed to achieve universal education goals. In September 2015, at an historic UN Summit, world leaders adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals intended to mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change. Goal 4 is aimed at ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning. The targets for Goal 4 include eliminating gender disparities in education by 2030.

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Malala Yousafzai Wins Nobel Peace Prize 2 Years After Shooting

Update: Oct. 10, 7:06 a.m. ET

Pakistani youth activist Malala Yousafzai was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, an honor she shares with Kailash Satyarthi, who has long been campaigning against child exploitation in neighboring India. But until about two years ago, Malala was just a 15-year old blogger on a school bus with her friends. It was Oct. 9, 2012, when armed Taliban men boarded Malala’s bus and shot her in the head, transforming her from a minor Internet celebrity into an international symbol.

It’s hard to believe that she’s accomplished so much — including recovery from her injuries — in only two years, but Malala’s story actually started long before the assassination attempt that launched her to worldwide fame. She was born in the Swat valley in Pakistan, in 1997, to parents who encouraged her love for education from a young age. Her father, Ziauddin, opened a private school for boys and girls, partly to fight against gender discrimination in Pakistan. “My father educated my brother and me, but he didn’t send my sisters to school,” he told The Guardian. “I thought it was an injustice.” When Malala was born, he named her after a Pashtun heroine and never curbed her ambition.”Don’t ask me what I did, ask me what I did not do,” Ziauddin said in a TEDtalk about his daughter that quickly went viral, “I did not clip her wings.”

As a toddler, Malala would sit in classrooms in her father’s school and follow lessons for 10-year olds. Aryn Baker wrote in her 2012 profile of Malala for TIME:

By the time she was 2½, she was sitting in class with 10-year-olds, according to a close family friend and teacher at the school founded by Malala‘s father. The little girl with the huge hazel eyes didn’t say much, but “she could follow, and she never got bored,” says the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous for fear that she too might become a Taliban target. Malala loved the school, a rundown concrete-block building with a large rooftop terrace open to views of the snowcapped mountains that surround the Swat Valley. As she grew older, she was always first in her class. “She was an ordinary girl with extraordinary abilities,” says the teacher, “but she never had a feeling of being special.”

In 2008, everything changed. The Taliban gained control of the Swat region, banning DVDs, dancing, and beauty parlors. By the end of the year, over 400 schools were closed. Ziauddin took Malala to Peshawar, where she made a famous speech in front of national press titled “How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right to Education?” She was only 11.

In early 2009, Malala started blogging anonymously for the BBC about what it was like to live under the Taliban. Just a few days after she started, all girls schools were closed.

In retrospect, some parts of Malala’s blog seem like ominous foreshadowing: “On my way from school to home I heard a man saying ‘I will kill you’,” she wrote on Jan. 3, 2009. “I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.” But there are also humorous parts that remind us that, at the time, she was only 11: “My mother liked my pen name ‘Gul Makai’ and said to my father ‘why not change her name to Gul Makai?’ I also like the name because my real name means ‘grief stricken’.”

In December 2009, Ziauddin publicly identified his daughter, even though her real name has been widely suspected for months.

That proved to be a dangerous move. “We did not want to kill her, as we knew it would cause us a bad name in the media,” Sirajuddin Ahmad, a senior commander and spokesman for the Swat Taliban, told TIME for the 2012 magazine profile. “But there was no other option.”

In 2012, armed men boarded the converted truck that Malala and her classmates used as a makeshift school bus. “Which one is Malala?” one of them asked. “I think we must have looked at her,” Malala’s classmate Shazia Ramzan told TIME’s Aryn Baker. “We didn’t say anything, but we must have looked, because then he shot her.” Malala took a bullet to the head.

She endured a traumatic operation in Pakistan that left her with a (temporary) metal plate in her head while they stored a piece of her skull in her abdomen, to reattach when she’s healed enough. She was then airlifted to a hospital in Birmingham, England, where she had more medical treatment and extensive rehabilitation.

The rest of her story has played out in the public eye. Nine months after she was shot, Malala gave a now-famous speech at the UN. “They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed,” she said. “And then, out of that silence came thousands of voices. … Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Now relocated to England, Malala goes to Edgbaston School for Girls. She’s continued her high-profile campaign for girls’ education with The Malala Fund, which raises money to promote girls’ education. She’s used the fund as a platform to confront Barack Obama about drone strikes, help Syrian refugee children and demand the return of the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. And this September, she announced a $3 million multi-year commitment to partner with Echidna Giving to support girls education in developing countries.

Malala won Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize in 2011, before she was shot, but the prize been since renamed in her honor; it’s now the National Malala Peace Prize. She was shortlisted for TIME’s Person of the Year in 2012, and was one of the TIME 100 in 2013. She won a Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice in 2012 and the 2013 Simone de Beauvoir Prize for international human rights work on behalf of women’s equality.

Read more: “There Are Thousands of Malalas”

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He Named Me Malala: the ordinary life behind an extraordinary girl

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Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for speaking out in support of girls’ education in Pakistan. Since then, based in the UK, she has continued her advocacy. She is the youngest-ever Nobel laureate : when it was awarded last year, she was just 17.

No doubt, then, that Malala, who grew up in Pakistan’s Swat valley and went on to inspire the world, is a truly remarkable young woman. But He Named Me Malala tells her personal story, whilst also shining a light on the wider global issue of the systematic exclusion of children, and especially girls, from education.

David Guggenheim’s documentary captures Malala’s everyday life as both a young teenager and a global activist through poignant and often humorous interview scenes. Malala is followed around her home, through school, to television interviews and global summits to spread her message of educational equality.

There are also hard-hitting clinical reconstructions of Malala’s emergency surgery in the UK after she was shot, brashly juxtaposed with the animated depiction of her upbringing in the Swat Valley. The dreamy style of these animations works well to capture the nostalgia of a life to which Malala and her family can no longer return.

Malala’s distinctiveness and bravery is reinforced by the way the film plays off the many juxtapositions of her life – voice and silence, empowerment and oppression, the triumph over tragedy. In so doing, it blends together a palpable sense of injustice with an unwavering commitment to hope. Malala speaks eloquently about everything from her favourite books and film stars to world politics. Her personal experience of suffering, however, remains wrapped in stoic silence.

Seemingly inconsequential, but touching moments of quotidian family life do well to pull you in emotionally to the heart-warming experiences of the Yousafzai family, who now live in the UK. Her relationship with her father, the “he” of the film’s title, is particularly focused on. Ordinary portraits of Malala’s giggling girlish coyness and childish banter with her brothers are a welcome reprise from the film’s prodigal tendencies. Indeed, these moments are crucial: they undercut the propensity of the film to romanticise Malala’s heroism. It is the very ordinariness of Malala’s everyday life, contrasted with the unnerving tenacity of her speeches to the UN, that pulls the rug from under our awe-inspired feet.

These touching moments are also important in the way they disrupt stereotypical imaginations of the “Islamic Other”, so often portrayed negatively in mainstream cinema and the media. The value of this simple depiction of a Muslim family being like any other family living in the UK cannot be overstated.

At the same time, many other wider political concerns are only hinted at. Nuggets of insight, such as Malala’s father’s claim that “the Taliban is not a person. It is an ideology”, certainly give the film a political flavour but could have been delved into in more detail.

Similarly, a 30-second clip of some Pakistani men agreeing with the Taliban’s threat to shoot Malala should she return is interesting, but also warranted more attention, particularly because it could have helped the audience better understand the everyday Pakistani perspective.

While this certainly makes for a good story, I couldn’t help but wonder about the voices of the people – in particular, the young girls – living back in Pakistan. Although the film uses Malala’s experience as a prism for thinking about the injustice of a lack of education globally, it may have been a more powerful argument for social change if the film had spent more time examining the reality of those left behind.

But despite this small niggle, He Named me Malala is a very important film. It does the crucial job of sharing the exceptional story of an exceptional young woman with a wider audience. And as an accomplished narrative of a heroic girl standing for what she believes in, it can do no wrong. But it is the moments of ordinariness that give the film real traction.

It is these moments that inspire and show us that any person, anywhere, can muster a voice. And a powerful, revolutionary one at that.

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Resources to Learn about Malala Yousafzai

January 22, 2017 by kidworldcitizen 1 Comment

Malala Yousafzai is an activist for female education from Pakistan. She began blogging anonymously in 2008 (at age 11) for the BBC about her life as a schoolgirl under the Taliban. She revealed that fewer and fewer girls were showing up at school until all girls’ schools were closed by the Taliban.

Her father continued to speak against the Taliban, and in 2009 Malala’s identity was revealed and she appeared on TV to publicly advocate for education for all. In 2012, she further entered the international spotlight when the Taliban tried to kill her for speaking out. In 2014, at the age of 17, she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her struggle for the right of all children (regardless of gender) to an education. Her perseverance, bravery, and activism makes Malala an inspirational leader, and a phenomenal role model for kids. Here are some videos and books for parents and teachers to use to introduce this exceptional advocate.

Videos about Malala

He Named Me Malala, by National Geographic: this inspiring documentary tells the story Malala Yousafzai, with interviews, live footage, interspersed with an animated story of the Afghani folk hero that is her namesake. It discusses the Taliban, and shows how they moved into the Swat Valley. Finally, the film shows the evolution of her, emerging as a global voice for the education rights of children. I try to always recommend movies that are age-appropriate, and I realize that this is PG-13. Parents and educators should preview the movie, as it obviously does mention violence, and there is a photo of the bus after she was shot that shows blood. My 10 year old looked away at that scene, but loved the rest of the movie!

Here are a couple of her most eloquent speeches. The first speech was given to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, as a 17 year old. In the second speech below, Ms. Yousafzai addresses the United Nations Youth Assembly as she turned 16 years old. The speech was made only 9 months after she was shot! It was her first high-level public appearance and she discusses nonviolence, forgiveness, and the huge importance of education for all.

Books about Malala:

Two thumbs up for the Malala book! #mkbkids A photo posted by Becky (@kidworldcitizen) on Feb 4, 2015 at 5:35pm PST

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Here is a list of wonderful books we have read about Malala. I am putting them in order from youngest to oldest.

Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words by Karen Leggett Abouraya. Really great for younger kids: nothing too scary!

Dear Malala, We Stand with You, by Rosemary McCarney. This book is a collection of photographs paired with a “letter” to Malala from children around the world. It was so heartwarming, I was crying the first time I read it aloud.

Malala a Brave Girl from Pakistan / Iqbal a Brave Boy from Pakistan by Jeanette Winter. A favorite author introduces us to two Pakistani children who are brave activists. This is one of those books that you read a story, and then flip it over and read from the back another story. It does vaguely talk about the violence that happened to these children, but in a sensitive way.

For the Right to Learn by Rebecca Langston-George. Great for kids to learn her biography. I love the illustrations in this one.

Who is Malala Yousafzai? by Dinah Brown (chapter book). This whole series is fabulous (we just finished Who was Frida Kahlo? and Who was Jesse Owens? ). My kids were especially angered at the details about the Taliban and their treatment of girls. It was truly eye-opening for them!

I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai. Read around the world, this is an autobiography that tweens and teens will enjoy. This is the “young readers edition” and has more narrative from herself and memories in first person.

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb. This is essentially the same book as the previous one, but with more historical context and explanation of Pakistan and Pashtun culture. The author also goes into more detail surrounding the medical interventions used to save her life when she is shot.

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15 Facts About Malala Yousafzai

Malala is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning education activist who survived an assassination attempt. She’s the founder of the Malala Fund, which invests in educators working to close the gender gap in education. 

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist, writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate focused on education equality. By the time she was 18, she’d already accomplished more than most people accomplish in a lifetime, and she continues to fight for equality. Here are 15 of the most important and interesting facts about this education rights advocate:

#1. She’s an advocate for education and gender equality

Malala Yousafzai has advocated for every girl’s right to education since she was a child. According to data from the Malala Fund, 64% of girls drop out of school in the lower secondary grades, while 81% drop out in the upper secondary. That means around 122 million girls are out of school, while women account for ⅔ of all adults who can’t read . Girls are still not valued as much as boys, which limits their access to education. Malala focuses on investing in girls’ education and protecting their futures.

#2. Her father made sure she got equal educational opportunities

Education advocacy runs in the Yousafzai family. Malala’s father, Ziauddin, was a teacher and education activist in Pakistan. In a 2019 talk with The Guardian, Malala said , “My father was a feminist before he knew the word feminist.” He ran a girls’ school in their village, so Malala got the same educational opportunities as a boy. With her father’s encouragement, Malala developed an early passion for learning. Zia is humble about his contributions to Malala’s success, saying “I didn’t clip her wings, that is all.”

#3. Malala began her activist career through an anonymous blog

People from all over the world know Malala’s name, but she used to be an anonymous blogger for BBC Urdu. In 2009, the BBC hosted writings from “a seventh-grade schoolgirl from Swat,” who described how the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education affected her and her friends. She writes about hearing artillery fire at night and worrying she won’t get to return to school. On January 3rd, she attends school despite the ban; she’s one of 11 students out of 27 who went back. Malala was just 11 years old. The blog quickly became famous. In her memoir I Am Malala , she describes how hard it was not to tell anyone, and how she didn’t even want to use a fake name. The BBC correspondent organizing the blog chose the pseudonym “Gul Makai,” which means cornflower.

#4. Malala stopped being anonymous, despite the dangers

Malala did not stay anonymous for long. In 2008, journalist Adam B. Ellick worked for the New York Times bureau in Afghanistan . After learning about the Taliban’s plans to ban education for girls, Ellick met Zia Yousafzai, who arrived for an interview with Malala. When filming for Malala’s documentary began, winter vacation was about to begin, but no return date had been set for the girls’ return to school. The filmmakers followed Malala and her classmates through their last day. In I Am Malala, she felt like they were going to a funeral. The Times documentary “Class Dismissed” compiles two of Ellick’s original documentaries.

#5. The Taliban tried to assassinate Malala in 2012

By 2012, Malala was speaking more openly about the right to education. The Taliban considered her a threat to their power. On October 9th, Malala was returning home from school when two Taliban members boarded her bus and shot the 15-year-old in the head. She survived. She was first treated at a hospital in Pakistan and then at an intensive care unit in England. She spent ten days in a medically induced coma. She had no major brain damage, although she needed months of surgeries and rehabilitation .

#6. Malala was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Malala won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize , which she shared with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist who campaigns against child exploitation. At just 17 years old, Malala is the youngest recipient. Her memoir describes the moment she found out. She was in chemistry class when a teacher asked to speak with her. Malala was shocked at the news, but instead of going home to celebrate, she completed the rest of her school day. She was given the award for her work “against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education .” Nobel Peace Prize winners receive a monetary award, a diploma and a medal.

#7. Malala continued her education in the UK

About six months after the attempt on her life, Malala began attending school in Birmingham, England. In an interview with Al Jazeera, she expressed excitement about going back to school, although she missed her classmates from Pakistan. In the 2015 epilogue of her memoir, I Am Malala, she describes keeping in touch with the two other girls who were shot on the bus, as well as her best friend. The school system in the UK was an adjustment, as she didn’t have access to things like science labs, libraries and computer labs in Pakistan. In 2020, she graduated from the University of Oxford with a three-year degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

#8. Malala has a day named after her

Malala Day is celebrated every July 12. It recognizes Malala’s birthday and the day she gave a famous speech to the UN in 2013. She was 16 years old. In her speech, Malala thanked her nurses, doctors and everyone who supported her as she recovered from the attempt on her life. She also drew attention to the activists who stand up for human rights, including the thousands and millions killed and injured. “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world,” she said.

To learn more about Malala Day, check out our article here .

#9. Malala established an education fund with her father

Malala and her father founded the Malala Fund in 2013. According to its website, it “champions every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe, quality education.” Instead of building new schools, the fund invests in members of the Education Champion Network . These activists are already working to improve education access, so the Malala Fund helps them scale up their work and harness their collective power. The Fund wants to expand into 10 new countries in the next five years.

#10. Malala is an author

Malala has written or co-written several books. In 2015, she released I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban with Christina Lamb. In this book, Malala describes her upbringing, relationship with her parents, decision to speak up for education and rise as a global icon for human rights. She’s also written books for children including Malala’s Magic Pencil. Her most recent book, We Are Displaced , explores her experiences visiting refugee camps and reckoning with her own story of displacement.

#11. Malala is named after an Afghan poet and warrior

Malala is named after Malalai of Maiwand, a folk hero from Afghanistan. Malalai was a shepherd’s daughter who rallied armies against British invaders. In 1880, Afghans fought a second war against the British, but during the battle of Maiwand, the soldiers grew discouraged. Malalai performed a “landay,” a short poem in the Pashto language: “Young love, if you do not fall in a Battle of Maiwand, by God, someone is saving you as a symbol of shame.”

#12. Malala’s Muslim faith is important to her

Malala was raised in the Muslim faith, and according to a 2024 interview in Teen Vogue, her spiritual beliefs continue to motivate her. She describes faith as the “foundation” of her advocacy. At 10 years old, she began studying the Quran, which taught her the importance of doing good and seeking knowledge. Malala also condemns the Taliban’s use of religion to justify oppression. In the interview, she says , “My faith guides me to know that it is wrong to deliberately and systematically oppress girls and women.”

#13. Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister, inspired Malala

In I Am Malala, Malala writes about her admiration for Benazir Bhutto, the first woman democratically elected in a Muslim-majority country. While Bhutto had lived in exile in the UK since Malala was two years old, she describes Bhutto as “a role model for girls like me.” Malala and her family wept when Bhutto returned home to Pakistan in 2007. Two months later, Bhutto was assassinated. At that moment, Malala felt inspired to keep fighting for women’s rights in Pakistan despite the risks. When Malala gave her speech to the UN in 2013, she wore a pink shawl that belonged to Bhutto .

#14. Malala had a movie made about her

The documentary He Named Me Malala came out in 2015. Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the movie explores Malala’s life and her recovery from the Taliban’s assassination attempt. The film was shortlisted for the 88th Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature and won Best Animated Special Production at the Annie Awards. The film is available to rent or buy on platforms like Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and Amazon Video.

#15. Malala got married in 2021

In 2021, Malala announced she’d married Asser Malik in a nikkah ceremony, which is a religious ceremony where couples consent to be married. At the time of the marriage , Malik was a cricket manager. Malala shared more information in a personal essay for British Vogue. “I found a best friend and companion,” she wrote . She also discussed her initial caution about marriage, and how she worried she might lose her independence and humanity. Through conversations with trusted mentors and loved ones – including her husband – she determined she could stay true to her values in a relationship.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Malala Yousafzai

• Occupation: Human Rights Activist
• Born: July 12, 1997 in Mingora, Pakistan
• Best known for: Fighting for the rights of women to receive an education in Pakistan

• She was named after a famous Afghani poet and warrior named Malalai of Maiwand.
• Malala was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She was in chemistry class when she found out.
• Kailash Satyarthi shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Malala. He fought against child labor and slavery in India.
• The United Nations named July 12th as "World Malala Day."
• She once said "When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page: