Malala Yousafzai Shot
On 9 October 2012, a gunman boarded a school van in Pakistan's Swat Valley and shot fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who had become known for speaking out about girls' right to education. The attack, claimed by the Taliban faction Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, provoked outrage in Pakistan and around the world, and turned a local schoolgirl into one of the most recognizable advocates for education in the world.
Malala grew up in the town of Mingora, where her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, ran a school. In 2007 and 2008 the Taliban, led locally by Maulana Fazlullah, took control of much of Swat. They banned girls from attending school, closed or destroyed many schools, and enforced harsh rules through intimidation and violence. In early 2009, writing under a pseudonym, Malala contributed a diary to the BBC Urdu website describing life under these restrictions. Her identity soon became known, and she gave interviews on Pakistani and international media. The Pakistani army launched an offensive in mid-2009 that retook most of the valley, but militants remained a threat.
On the day of the attack, Malala was returning home from school after exams. A gunman stopped the vehicle, asked for her by name, and fired, wounding her in the head and injuring two other girls, Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz. Malala was first treated at a military hospital in Peshawar and then flown to Rawalpindi. She was later transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where she underwent surgery and a long recovery. The Taliban said they had targeted her for promoting what they called Western values, and they threatened to try again if she survived.
The shooting prompted widespread protests and vigils in Pakistan, and a United Nations campaign used the slogan "I am Malala." Pakistan passed its Right to Education Act in 2012, though advocates note that millions of children there remain out of school. Several men were arrested in connection with the attack, and the case drew attention to how difficult it can be to bring such prosecutions to a clear conclusion.
Malala continued her campaigning from the United Kingdom. In 2013 she addressed the United Nations on her sixteenth birthday and published the memoir I Am Malala, and she co-founded the Malala Fund to support girls' education. In 2014 she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, becoming the youngest Nobel laureate in history. Her story remains a prominent example of how a single young voice can influence the global conversation on education.