Nyasha Holley

EN 231 News Writing/Journalism I

R. Post
Information Literacy Assignment
Fall 2014
Malala Yousafzai: youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize.
In 1915, Sir William Lawrence Bragg was named the youngest person ever to
receive a Nobel Prize at the age of 25. Now almost a century later, a new
recipient has come along to break the record. Her name is Malala Yousafzai.
At the age of 17, her story has made national news for a couple of years now
and she even has her own book published.
After years of fighting for girls education rights, she is being awarded the
2014 Nobel peace Prize. Yousafzai will be awarded the prestigious award
along with one other recipient, Kailash Satyarthi. In a press release on the
official website of the Nobel Prize, the award was presented to both parties
for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and
for the right of all children to education.
In an interview with The New York Times, Yousafzai expresses why she
believes the topic of girls education is important. She says that when
terrorism began in her homeland of Swat Valley back in 2007, she saw girls
being denied their basic human rights like going to the market or going to
school. I realized girls' education is something important, and that's why the
terrorists are afraid of it-because they do not want women to [be]
empowered. That's why I started speaking for it, she tells the magazine.
In 2012, when Yousafzai was 15, she was approached and shot in the head by
members of the Taliban while on a bus ride home from school. According to
The Washington Post, the word Taliban means students. The group consists of
fundamentalist Sunni Muslim militants. They emerged in 1994 and controlled
Afghanistan with a set of conservative rules. Their aim was to bring peace,
security, and reinforce the traditional Islamic laws. Women were denied many
rights and strict rules on what they could wear, do and study were enforced.
It was frowned upon for girls 10 and older to attend school.
After a US-led military group invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban no
longer had control over the country but this didnt stop their acts of terrorism.
Yousafzais story is one that has brought a lot of attention to the terrorist
group. After making a miraculous recovery, she continues to be the voice for
young women who arent able to get an education. According to Scholastic
News, Yousafzai now lives and goes to school in England because it isnt
completely safe for her to go back to her homeland. I'm very lucky. She tells
Scholastic News.
In her book I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot
by the Taliban she recounts the bus incident and talks about what it was like

growing up in Pakistan. Because of her perseverance and determination, she

has been awarded a number of esteemed awards aside from the Nobel Peace
Prize. This includes the U.N. Human Rights prize. Previous recipients of the
award include Nelson Mandela and former president Jimmy Carter.