Teen Activist Malala Is the Youngest Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ever
Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani education activist who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban for her work, became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She'll share the award with India's Kailash Satyarthi, 60, a child rights activist and founder of Save the Childhood Movement.
"The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism," Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said of their win in Oslo.
Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban forces in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2012 for blogging about their oppressive rule for the BBC. She was 15. The attack on her life only emboldened her cause to an international audience.
"Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai, has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education and has shown by example that children and young people too can contribute to improving their own situations," Jagland said.
Yousafzai and Satyarthi's win is a return to the award going to individuals—in the last two years, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013) and the European Union (2012) were the prize's winners.
[Image via AP]