March 8th marks International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to the appreciation to women and their achievements— complete with an inspiring Google doodle!
Today we celebrate a woman who has changed the world with her relentless courage and pursuit of girl’s education.
Born on July 12, 1997, Malala Yousafzai was raised in Mingora, a town in the Swat District of north-west Pakistan. She was named after Malalai, a Pashtun heroine. Malala’s father, Ziauddin, ran a school in Swat near the family’s home. Pakistan has the second highest number of out of school children in the world and Ziauddin, with his love for learning, became an outspoken opponent of Taliban efforts to stop girls from going to school.
Malala shared her father’s passion for learning yet the Taliban’s presence in Swat intensified. Malala feared that her school would soon be attacked and began writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym. Women were prevented from going shopping, all media was forbidden, and Ziauddin was told to close his school.
Continuing to speak out for education rights, death threats were sent to Malala and her father. Malala was featured in a documentary made for The New York Times which exposed her as the author of the BBC blogs. In 2011, Malala was awarded Pakistan’s First National Youth Peace Prize and was nominated by Desmond Tutu for the International Children’s Peace Prize. But her recognition grew, so did Taliban anger’s towards her. They plotted to kill her.
On October 9, 2012, a gunman boarded Malala’s school bus, asking for her by name. He shot her in the head, which also went through her neck and shoulder. Malala survived but was in a critical condition. She was moved to UK for and not discharged until January 2013, where her family met her.
Protests erupted across Pakistan. Over 2 million people signed a right to education petition, and the National Assembly passed Pakistan’s first-ever Right To Free and Compulsory Education Bill. Now a global advocate for the millions of girls denied education, Malala and Ziauddin co-founded the Malala Fund which “brings awareness to the social and economic impact of girls’ education and to empower girls to raise their voices, to unlock their potential and to demand change.”
On December 10, 2014, Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize using her $1 million prize money to finance a school for girls in Pakistan. Which is why today—and everyday—we celebrate Malala Yousafzai on International Women’s Day.
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