A brave 17-year-old Pakistani girl wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani girl who actively stands up for education for every girl and every boy. She also speaks about women’s rights and equality. Malala comes from a Muslim family and, contrary to our notion of the subjugation of women in such families, names her father as the greatest encourager in her fight for women’s rights and for a peace in which children can attend school undisturbed and, with the help of education, promote peaceful coexistence in the world.
The “Taliban” did not leave such conduct by the girl unnoticed. In 2012, as Malala was heading home on a bus, a “Taliban” fighter jumped onto the bus, put a pistol to her head, and shot her in the head. The girl was treated in Great Britain, and she has now recovered, but instead of falling silent out of fear and taking up “the place intended for a young Muslim woman”, Malala speaks with even greater courage and ardour about women’s equality and the right of every child to education. In 2013 Malala was invited to give an address at the assembly of the United Nations Youth Assembly. This year, in October 2014, the girl was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (text continues below the video).
In this short interview clip, which Malala gave on the “Daily Show” in the USA in 2013, she boldly speaks about the need to fight terrorism in Pakistan. Malala also emphasizes that her father gave her great encouragement, because he always stood up both for women’s rights and for girls’ rights to be educated. To the interviewer’s question about when she realized that the “Taliban” might begin persecutions, the girl answered that it was at the age of 14, when an acquaintance informed her about the threats addressed to her by the “Taliban” on the internet; she had not believed it, because she did not think the “Taliban” would kill a child. Malala was more afraid for her father, that the “Taliban” might attack him, yet the threats turned out to be real, and the girl was shot in the head for her speaking out and her publications calling for children to be educated and for women to be treated with respect. The interviewer Jon Stewart was momentarily lost for words when the girl said that at first she had thought of defending herself and shooting the “Taliban” representatives who would come after her, yet she then concluded that in that case her conduct would be exactly the same as the conduct of the terrorists, and she said to herself: “No, you must not treat others violently and cruelly, you must fight others by way of peace, dialogue, and education. And then I decided that I would tell him [the Taliban] how important education is, and that I want education for his children too, and then I would say – this is what I wanted to tell you, – now you can do with me what you want.”
The article was prepared by Aļesja Lavrinoviča
Proofreader Mag. Theol. Milda Klampe