Malala Yousafzai
Human Rights Activist
EARLY LIFE
Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997,
in the Swat Valley, Mignora, Pakistan
"Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was an educator who ran several private schools. Her mother was Toorpekai. The region of northwest Pakistan where she and her brothers--Khushal Khan and Apal Khan--grew up was well known for its beauty and was a popular honeymoon vacation area."
Malala was an eager student always yearning to learn, she would rather sit with grownups and listen to adults talk about politics than play with her peers. She would always have a stack of books to read and she would be the best student in her school and get awards for that.
A group called the Taliban wouldn't allow that to happen. They wouldn't allow women and girls to receive education and wanted them to enforce strict rules on specific behavior. She feared her father's school would be shut down, tortured to follow their rules, and even be killed. She always had that fear whenever she went and came back from school.
GETTING INVOLVED
- Malala was scared but determined to receive an education and continued to defy the Taliban by going to school and even starting to write blogs about what was happening and how she had the right to be educated.
- She was inspired by her father who also went out and spoke out against the Taliban. Although she still wrote on her blog she also started to speak out publicly and even on television.
CHOICES AND RESULTS
Malala had spoken out against the Taliban many times and appeared everywhere talking about her rights;
but something horrific had happened consequently..
- Gunmen had stopped her school bus on the way to school and asked who was Malala. They had shot her in the head and the neck and injured 2 other girls. Malala and the other girls rushed to the hospital afterwards.
"Young girls carried pictures of Yousafzai and declared "I am Malala." Parents demanded protection for their children and schools. Teachers led their students in prayers for Yousafzai." (Malala Yousafzai, Gale Biography in Context, paragraph )
Following many surgeries, in March 2013 Malala and the rest of her family moved to Birmingham, England and continued her studies there.
IN HER WORDS...
What or who inspired Malala to make
those choices she made?
- ""I have the right of education," she told CNN in 2011. "I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right to speak up.""
- "And I am inspired by him because the work he was doing at that time, when terrorism was spreading in Swat - it was really hard to speak at that time. And my father did. And I got inspired by him. And that's why I said that I would also speak up for my rights, and I'll also speak up for the rights of every girl to get education and to go to school."
- "The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born."
- "This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change."
AFTERMATH
Malala had received a lot of awards
and prizes for her efforts. Also, she gotten a lot of benefits from her fans also.
- The Nation Youth Peace Prize was renamed the National Malala Peace Prize in her honor and she was nominated a Peace Prize in 2014.
- Famous actress, Angelina Jolie helped her establish the Malala Fund.
- "Yousafzai also signed a $3 million book deal for her memoir, titled I Am Malala, which was published in October of 2013."
"On October 10, 2013, in acknowledgement of her work, the European Parliament awarded Yousafzai the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought."
She even got a chance to meet with President Obama!
WORDS FOR HER...
A couple of her fans had given a say
about what she had done..
"Malala Yousafzai is all of our daughter, like Iqbal Masih who was all of our son."
-Megan Smith"We are all losers in comparison to Malala Yousafzai. But we are not all geniuses. Like me."
-Ta Nehisi Coates
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Malala Yousafzai." Gale Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Biography in Context. Web. 5 May 2016."
2. Brainy Quote.
Brainy Quote was a good source because it had a huge amount of actual quotes from famous people. It was great for seeing what your specific leader said and what other people said about him/her.
3.BBC.COM
This was a good source because it gave news about Malala. It also had a video of her actual father speaking about when she was in the hospital and info about her in the hospital.
4.TheBiography.com
This source had great facts about Malala's life and had evidence to support it. It even said on the website that they strive for accuracy and to contact them if something doesn't look right.
5. Malala.org (The Malala Fund)
This website looked professional. It had accurate facts and brief summaries of her life with videos to support that. It even had a button that said DONATE! It had to be the real thing.
6."Malala Yousafzai - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 5 May 2016."
This website also had a professional presentation. On the website it said that it was published at the time of the award and it even says the official site of the Nobel prize along with a list of other Nobel Prize winners.
7. Mirror news online
This source actually extracted from I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb book. This has to be real since it was written by Malala herself with real events.
8. Npr.org
Npr had captured an actual interview with Malala, just the audio. You can hear her quotes and also see them because they have typed down the interview also.
9. ABCnews.COM
Abc news had much background information on her and the Malala Fund and how to help, they used evidence and cited their sources. It also used direct quotes.
10.Whitehouse.gov
It had an overview on what had happened when Malala had met President Obama and also spoke more about Malala and Kailash Satyarthi, the man who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Malala and what they were doing in life.