Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was born in the town of Mingora, Pakistan to a poor but prominent Muslim family, headed by Ziauddin Yousafzai. Growing up, Ziauddin encouraged Malala to study literature and rhetoric, and to express herself freely. From an early age, Malala was conscious of the inferior position of women in her society: she was especially conscious of the difference between her mother, Tor Pekai, a woman with no formal education, and her father, a man with considerable training in writing, poetry, and oration. At the age of 11, Malala began writing a diary for a BBC blog, thanks to contacts her father had established. She also made an appearance in a New York Times documentary on life in Pakistan under the Taliban. Following these two projects, Malala became increasingly active in the media, in spite of her young age. She gave interviews in which she criticized the rise of the violent religious extremist group, the Taliban, in her country. In the fall of 2012, Malala was shot by a Taliban soldier. She was treated in Pakistani military hospitals, and afterwards, thanks to her international fame, taken to superior medical facilities in Birmingham, England. Malala made a full recovery from her bullet wounds, and continued to actively campaign for women’s rights and education. In 2014, she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in its 114-year history.