“THIS new year I made a goal to read 84 books in 2021,” wrote Pakistani education activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Instagram in January. She also urged others to join her @literati book club.
In early January this year, the then US president Donald Trump signed off on the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act. Under the Act, the US Agency of International Development (USAID) will be awarding 50 per cent of the merit and needs-based scholarship programmes across a wide range of academic disciplines to Pakistani women who meet the existing eligibility criteria.
Last year also marked the opening of the Malala Yousafzai Elementary School (referred to as Malala Elementary) in Fort Bend County, Texas. It is operated by the Fort Bend Independent School District (FBISD).
She studied philosophy, politics and economics at the prestigious University of Oxford.
On June 19, 2020, it was announced that she had completed her final exams at university.
The 23-year-old was reportedly a regular at the weekly Port and Policy meetings organised by the university’s Conservative Association – which was former prime minister Theresa May’s favourite haunt when she was studying at Oxford in the 1970s – and known for her attendance at socials with the university’s Hindu Society, Polo Club, Christian Union and Islamic Society. And, like any typical student, she sometimes
starts her assignments later than recommended.
Yousafzai first rose to prominence when she wrote an anonymous blog for the BBC Urdu service during the Taliban rule, using the platform to campaign for girls’ rights to an education.
As her efforts became more recognised, a then-15-year-old Yousafzai received death threats by the Taliban. In 2012, she was shot in the head by a masked Taliban gunman.
It was feared she would not live but miraculously by January 2013, she had recovered, relocated to the UK and was enrolled to start school at Edgbaston High School, Birmingham.
Since her recovery, Yousafzai has continued to spread her peaceful views to some of the most influential leaders in the world. She has also continued her charity work in her time off and to spread the message of the Malala Fund – which seeks to support young people getting an education and is especially active in assisting girls with their schooling and combating discrimination and inequality, wherever those prevent it.
The fund is now active in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Syria, Nigeria and Brazil.
At the age of 17, Yousafzai was awarded the honour of the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to help combat the suppression of children and for their rights within education. Till date, she is the youngest Nobel laureate ever to receive the award.
Her acceptance speech was commended by many. She thanked her father for “not cutting my wings and letting me fly.” She said that the award was not just for her, but for “those forgotten children who want education [and] for those frightened children who want peace.
However, despite being settled in the UK, Yousafzai has been open about her desire to return to Pakistan.
She is said to have sobbed with emotion as she entered her childhood home in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2018 for the first time since 2012.
“I had never been so excited for anything. I’ve never been so happy before,” she has said through tears.
Yousafzai continues to use her platform for good. During her school holidays, she travels abroad to meet with disadvantaged women and girls.
For her birthday, she urges for gift donations for the Malala Fund.
Her 2019 book We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World highlighted the refugee experience.
The novel included Yousafzai’s own experiences of being displaced in Pakistan, as well as nine others with similar stories. It was described as “an eye-opener to the refugee crisis in the postmodern world”.
In 2015, Yousafzai was a subject of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary He Named Me Malala.
The 2013, 2014 and 2015, issues of Time magazine featured her as one of the most influential people globally.
