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Malala Yousafzai, often referred to mononymously as MALALA, is a Pakistani activist for female education and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is also the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and second Pakistani.

Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren’t allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn’t go to school.

Raised in a once-peaceful area of Pakistan transformed by terrorism. Malala was taught to stand up for what she believed. So she fought for her right to be educated.

Malala yousafzai started her campaign for girls' education at the age of ten when the swat Valley was being attacked by terrorists and education was threatened in 2009, she wrote about life under the Taliban for BBC Urdu and was featured in a New York Times documentary about education in Pakistan.

On October 9, 2012; Malala was targeted by the Taliban and was shot while returning home from school. No one expected her to survive but she survived and continued her education campaign.

In 2011, in recognition of her courage and advocacy, Malala was nominated for the International Children’s  Peace Prize and won Pakistan's first national Youth Peace Prize.

She is the youngest person ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and has received numerous other awards, including the International Children’s Peace Prize(2013), the Sakharov Prize for freedom of Thought, and the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award.

This is the remarkable speech of a girl who knew from a young age that she wanted to change the world and did. It will open your eyes to another world and make you believe in hope, truth, miracles, and the determination of one person to inspire change.

Speech

Photo credit: Getty images/Nigel Waldoru

Dear brothers and sisters

Do remember one thing, Malala day is not my day. Today is the day for every woman, every boy, and every girl who has raised their voice for their rights. Thousands of people have been killed by terrorists, and millions have been injured. I am just one of them.

So here I stand one girl among many.

I speak not for myself, but for all girls and boys.

I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. 

Those who have fought for their rights,

Their right to live in peace,

Their right to be treated with dignity,

Their right to equality of opportunity,

Their right to be educated.

On the ninth of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead, they shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed.

And then, out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this; weakness, fear, and hopelessness died, and strength, power, and courage were born. I am the same Malala my ambitions are the same, my dreams are the same.

One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.

‘ I wasn't sad. I wasn’t scared. I just thought: it doesn’t matter what I look like. I am alive. I was thankful

I glanced over at Dr.Fiona. She had positioned a box of tissues between us, and I realized then that she’d been expecting me to cry. Maybe the old Malala would have cried. But when you’ve nearly lost your life. a funny face in the mirror is simply proof that you are still here on this earth.’ 

Now she is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize nominee.