Malala Yousafzai is a school

pupil and education activist

from the town of Mingora in
the Swat District of
Pakistan's province. She is
known for her activism for
rights to education and for
women, especially in the
Swat Valley, where the
Taliban had at times banned
girls from attending school.
Her story
begins in
Pakistan
in a lush,
beautiful
place
called
Swat
Valley.
In the early 2009,at age 12,the fragile girl
that appeared to be Malala revelead the
first glimpses of the vocal education
activist who soon will become.
At 3 January 2009
she started to write
a blog under the
byline "Gul Makai"
("cornflower" in
Urdu),for the BBC
Urdu. She would
hand-write notes
and then pass them
on to a reporter
who would scan
and e-mail them.
It seems that it is only when
dozens of schools have been
destroyed and hundreds
others closed down that the
army thinks about protecting
them. Had they conducted
their operations here
properly, this situation would
not have arisen.

-Malala Yousafzai 24 January
2009 BBC blog entry

Malala refused to
cover her face
black out her
being underneath
a burqa,because
by doing it would
mean to
surrender her
dreams and be
the slave of
injustice and
discrimination.
After some months her blog had
ended,she appeared on a New
York Times documentary
entitled Class Dismissed in
Swat Valley. Her public profile
rose even further when she was
awarded Pakistan's first National
Youth Peace Prize two months
later in December.On 19
December 2011, Prime Minister
awarded her the National Peace
Award for Youth. At the
proceedings in her honor,
Yousafzai stated that she was
not a member of any political
party, but hoped to found a
national party of her own to
promote education.
As Yousafzai became more recognized, the dangers facing her became more
acute. Death threats against her were published in newspapers and slipped
under her door.The Taliban were planning to kill her.
Tuesday 9 October 2010 was the day when everything changed for Malala.
She was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban
gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately
following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but
later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital in Birmingham, England, for intensive rehabilitation.
Malala Day
On 12 July 2013, Yousafzai's
16th birthday, she spoke at the
UN to call for worldwide access
to education. The UN dubbed
the event "Malala Day". It was
her first public speech since
the attack.
"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 was born
... I am not against anyone,
neither am I here to speak in
terms of personal revenge
against the Taliban or any
other terrorist group. I'm here
to speak up for the right of
education for every child.