Malala Yousafzai 'honoured' to be co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
Yousafzai is youngest winner of a Nobel Prize
CBC News Posted: Oct 10, 2014 5:05 AM ET, Last Updated: Oct 10, 2014 12:03 PM ET, Source - CBC News
Malala Yousafzai
Children's rights activist Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan says she is honoured to share this year's Nobel Peace Prize with India's Kailash Satyarthi of India.
The two shared the prize for "their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education," the committee said. The announcement was made Friday in Oslo by ThorbjØrn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel committee said it "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."
"I'm proud that I'm the first Pakistani and first the young woman, or the first young person, who is getting this award," Yousafzai told journalists in Birmingham, England, where she now lives.
She said her win is not the end of her campaign for children's education rights.
At school when the announcement was made, Yousafzai, 17, is the youngest winner of a Nobel Prize. The previous youngest laureate of a Nobel Prize was British scientist William Lawrence Bragg, who won the physics prize in 1915 at age 25. The youngest previous recipient of the peace prize was Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, who won it in 2011 at age 32.
An outspoken advocate for girls’ education, Yousafzai was critically injured on Oct. 9, 2012, when a gunman shot her in the head while she was riding home on a school bus in the city of Mingora. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
She spent three months in a British hospital recovering, and now lives in England with her family. Militants still threaten to kill her if she returns home.
"They wanted to silence one Malala, but instead now thousands and millions of Malalas are speaking," she told Anna Maria Tremonti, the host of CBC Radio's The Current, in a Canadian exclusive interview that aired in 2013.
Yousafzai's campaigns for girls' education began while she was a pre-teen. At age 11, she started blogging under a pseudonym for the BBC about her love of learning and Taliban oppression in Pakistan, especially its ban on educating girls in her area.
News of her win touched of celebrations in her hometown of Mingora, Pakistan. Students danced at Khushal Public School, which is owned by Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai.
Speaking to the Associated Press, her father said the Nobel win will "boost the courage of Malala and enhance her capability to work for the cause of girls' education."
Thousands rescued from slavery
Satyarthi, 60, has been active in the children's rights movement since 1980. His work has led to the rescue of thousands of children from slavery, and he has survived several attempts on his life.
India's Kailash Satyarthi, seen here at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, has been named co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Malala Yousafzi. (Bobby Bank/Getty Images)
In maintaining the traditions of Mahatma Gandhi, Satyarthi has "headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain," the Nobel committee said Friday.
Satyarthi dedicated his win to children in slavery, Reuters reported.
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee said "the prize should be seen as recognition of the contributions of India's vibrant civil society in addressing complex social problems such as child labour."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the world's children were Friday's "true winners." He praised Satyarthi's "heroic work" and Malala's "courage and determination."
"Both Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi have demonstrated tremendous courage in the face of powerful adversaries," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
The winners were selected from a list of 278 nominees, the highest number of candidates ever. The list included 47 organizations, the Nobel committee said. The previous record was 259 in 2013.
The winners of the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and literature were announced earlier this week. The economics award winner will be announced on Monday.
All of the Nobel prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
- Nobel Prize in Literature won by French writer Patrick Modiano
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by 2 Americans, German
- Nobel physics prize goes to 3 scientists for LED breakthrough
- Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded for brain GPS research
with files from Reuters, The Associated Pres
Source - http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/m...eace-prize-1.2794701
