Malala Yousafzai ,
born July 12, 1997. is a school
student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her
education and women's rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has at times banned girls from
attending school. In early 2009,
at the age of 11/12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing
her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and
her views on promoting education for girls. The
following summer, aNew York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the
Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. Yousafzai began to rise in prominence,
giving interviews in print and on television and taking a position as chairperson of the District Child Assembly Swat She has since been nominated for theInternational
Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu and has won
Pakistan's firstNational Youth Peace Prize.
On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an
assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the
attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved
enough for her to be sent to a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. On 12
October a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who tried to kill her,and
the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin
