The Girl Who Dared

From a gunshot to a Nobel Peace Prize—the inspirational story of the youngest Nobel laureate

The Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to two individuals—a 17-year-old girl from Pakistan who has been campaigning for female education and a 60-year-old man who has spent a lifetime fighting against child labour. But when the announcement came, it wasn’t the choice of the 17-year- old, the youngest ever to receive this award, but that of the 60-year-old, Kailash Satyarthi, that evoked surprise because very few in India had heard of Satyarthi. But the young girl? No. She had been a favourite this year, like she had been last year. Such has been the story of Malala Yousafzai.

As is now widely known, Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen when she was 14 years old—for championing female education in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She initially used to pen an anonymous blog, written in the form of a diary, about Taliban’s occupation of the region, criticising them for banning schools for girls. But she became more vocal, openly talking about the right of girls to education in newspaper reports and documentaries, even though she started receiving death threats. When she chanced upon Richard Holbrooke, the then US special envoy to the region, Yousafzai even confronted him, urging him to do something about the state of affairs for women who want education. By the time she was shot, she was already well known in Pakistan, but the shocking nature of the incident, where a militant boarded a school bus and opened fire on her, catapulted her to international fame.

Since the attack, she has been living in the UK, where she underwent surgeries and now goes to school. She travels widely, speaking about female education in Pakistan. She delivered a speech at the UN last year and authored a best-selling memoir, apart from winning a number of awards. When she met Barack Obama in the White House, she even told the President how US drone attacks were fuelling terrorism.

In the last few years, the choices for the Nobel Peace Prize have been somewhat contentious—Barack Obama in 2009 and the European Union in 2012, for instance. But traditionally, the Peace Prize, it appears, is offered to either individuals who have accomplished something specific in peacekeeping or to individuals who have devoted their lives to a specific cause. Malala seems to fall in the latter category.

Some have, however, found the West’s fascination with Yousafzai troubling. Arundhati Roy, for instance, when asked by Laura Flanders—an English-American broadcast journalist—about the choice of the Nobel Peace laureates in an online interview, said, “… as an individual, it is very difficult to resist great powers trying to co-opt you and, trying to use you in certain ways, and she’s only a kid, you know, and she cannot be faulted at all for what she did, but certainly the great game is going on… this should not be taken as if I am criticising the individuals at all, but when the great game is at play, then they pick out people.” There is definitely something irritatingly patronising about some of the media coverage surrounding Yousafzai. Like last year when Jon Stewart, during an interview of Yousafzai on The Daily Show, told her, “I want to adopt you.” But what Roy suggests is perhaps too conspiratorial. And, if it is even partially true, Yousafzai appears too clear-minded to let any of that obfuscate what she wants to say.

The Nobel Peace Prize often does little to the cause of the individual being awarded, apart from the early attention it generates. But by awarding Yousafzai, an inspiring young woman, it has bestowed upon her an honour to achieve more.

AfghanistanMalala YousafzaiNobel Peace Prize 2014