Malala: The Girl Who Defied Taliban

Malala Yousafzai recently appeared on the cover of British Vogue. While the cover itself went viral, Yousafzai’s comments on marriage raised an avalanche of criticism in Pakistan. In a freewheeling conversation, Yousafzai elaborated on a lot of topics, from politics to culture to even her personal life. However, her comments on marriage irked many.

Speaking about marriage, Yousafzai said, “I still don’t understand why people have to get married. If you want to have a person in your life, why do you have to sign marriage papers, why can’t it just be a partnership?".

The comments raised a storm on conservative Pakistani social media with many accusing her of trying to corrupt the minds of young people with her “irresponsible" statements that go against the tenets of Islam. While some slammed her for copying “western culture", others blamed her for propagating negative ideas about the sacred rules of holy matrimony.

Recently graduated from the University of Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and Malala fights every day to ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education. Her journey from the Swat Valley in Pakistan to the Nobel Prize, Oxford, and becoming an international role model for women across the globe has not been an easy one.

Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize award in 2014 at the age of 17, Malala had reaffirmed that “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want an education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”

When the Taliban took power in Swat Valley, the place Malala grew up in, they banned girls from going to school, destroyed schools and silenced all dissidents with violence. In spite of all this, in 2009 Malala Yousafzai started blogging about her experiences under Taliban rule for the British TV channel BBC under the name Gul Makai, and took up the fight for girls’ right to education in Pakistan. One day when she was 15 years old and on the way home from school, her school bus was stopped by armed members of the Taliban and she was shot in the head, forcing her family to leave Pakistan and move to Birmingham, England, to keep her safe from the militant group

Yousafzai recovered, and in 2014 she became the youngest Nobel Laureate ever when, at the age of just 17, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist for children’s rights. Yousafzai and Satyarthi were honoured for their fight against the oppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to be educated.

Much of the world's population, especially in poor countries, is made up of children and young people. To achieve a peaceful world, it is crucial that the rights of children and young people be respected. The injustices perpetrated against children contribute to the spread of conflicts to future generations.

About 130 million girls all over the world are out of school. Child Labour, early marriage, political conflict, cost, gender bias, natural disasters, and poor quality of education causes many girls over the world to drop out. She grew up in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, where welcoming a baby girl is not always a cause for celebration in Pakistan — but her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was determined to give her every opportunity a boy would have. Malala, at a very young age became a champion for the rights of these girls, and along with her father, she established the Malala Fund.

The Malala Fund has become an organization that, through education, empowers girls to achieve their potential and become confident and strong leaders in their own countries. Funding education projects in six countries and working with international leaders, the Malala Fund joins with local partners to invest in innovative solutions on the ground and advocates globally for quality secondary education for all girls.

Malala Fund is working so that the stories of girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage, and gender discrimination, can be heard around the world. The fund invests in developing country, educators and activists, and holds leaders accountable for their promises to girls.

They support educators, advocates and activists who are challenging the policies and practices that prevent girls from going to school in their communities. Malala Fund invests in their work, supports their professional development and connects them with each other to develop national, regional and global networks. By leveraging the collective power of our Education Champions, Malala Fund is creating broader change and making it easier for all girls to learn.

- Smriti Choudhary