Kaitlin Barrios December 17, 2013 American Literature Cindy Torres Hashtag Role Model Malala Yousafzai is a sixteen-year-old

education activist from Pakistan. She has faced much adversity in her crusade for womens rights. Condemned by those who would rather silence than support her, she has resolved to keep speaking for her fellow females who seek knowledge in schools. Malala has been instrumental in raising awareness about the struggle to be an educated woman in an oppressive patriarchal society. Shes an inspirational young woman who moves people to be thankful for their schooling and also to help those to whom it is not readily available. It could be said that her career as an activist began in 2009 when she wrote about ordinary life under the Taliban for the BBC. The Taliban had been bombing several girls schools, even enforcing an edict banning girls from going. As a result, many of Malalas classmates refused to attend their classes out of fear for their lives. Only 70 out of 700 enrolled students went to school. Sounds of gunfire and military action were heard constantly at night. In 2011, Yousafzai became the first ever Pakistani girl to be nominated for the International Childrens Peace Prize. Two months later in December, she was awarded the National Youth Peace Prize in Pakistan. At Malalas request, Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gillani erected an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women. Within the next year, Malala planned to organize an education foundation that would help girls in poverty to attend school.

In the summer of 2012, the Taliban agreed to make an attempt at her life since threats and degradation had failed to bring her down. By October, a gunman shot her through the head, neck, and shoulder while Yousafzai was riding home on a bus. She was flown into Birmingham, England for medical treatment. She was discharged from the hospital for rehabilitation in January 2013. Since then, an outpour of support has overwhelmed Malala and her family. More people than ever were supporting her cause, and she became a beacon of hope for women across the globe who were denied the right to education since she did not give in to the Taliban and continued to speak out against subjugation. Malala is only a year younger than I am, but she has done more than I could hope to do in a lifetime. She makes me want to improve upon myself and be a better student as well as an advocate for women. I look forward to seeing what she will do with the rest of her life. I will stand with her and hope that someday, we can all overcome the hardship enforced on us by domineering forces. She said it best herself: In the future women, rather than men, will be the ones to change the world.