'I Am Malala' Author Youngest Nobel Peace Prize Beats Vladimir Putin, Pope, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning

'I Am Malala' Author Youngest Nobel Peace Prize Beats Vladimir Putin, Pope, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning   

Malala Yousafzai won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize at 17 making her the youngest recipient of the prestigious award, The Guardian reported.

Yousafzai was chosen among 278 nominees, which include 47 organizations and 231 individuals, such as Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Pope, and whistle-blowers from the United States, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, The New York Times has learned.

"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," the Nobel committee explained in a statement.

According to the statement, Yousafzai has fought her fight "under the most dangerous circumstances" and has become "a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education" through her "heroic struggle."

In 2012, a Taliban gunman shot the Pakistani teenage education campaigner shot on school bus in her home country of Pakistan after rising to fame due to her girls' education campaign. She was then treated for serious injuries in Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham.

Since then, she continued her campaign and even spoke before the United Nations and met with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Along with Yousafzai, children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi from India also won the Nobel Peace Prize with approximately $1.11 million from the chairman of the Nobel committee, Norway's former Prime Minister Thorbjoern Jagland.

Having maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Satyarthi led various forms of peaceful protests and has "contributed to the development of important international conventions on children's rights," the Nobel committee explained.

Prior to the Nobel Peace Prize, Yousafzai published a memoir titled "I Am Malala" and was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine.

For Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman, Yousafzai and Satyarthi were worthy winners for their contribution to the promotion of universal education of children around the worldwide and their protection from abuse and exploitation.

For the Nobel committee, it is "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."

 

 

Tags : Malala Yousafzai Vladimir Putin Kailash Satyarthi Nobel Peace Prize Pakistan India Russia Pope