25 young people making noise for social progress
By Robin Lempel
The words Anne Frank wrote in this room still remind us to cherish and defend human rights.
— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) December 10, 2017
Today, I am thinking of Palestinian and Rohingya children- and all around the world still struggling to achieve Anne’s dream of freedom.#HumanRightsDay pic.twitter.com/jmFcYTkZoR
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai just wanted to go to school. Now she’s become a worldwide hero, fighting for girls and working to make sure everyone can get an education.
Yousafzai loved learning and wanted to get an equal opportunity at an education. But in December 2008, the Taliban, who had taken control of where she lived in Pakistan, banned girls from going to school. Still, Yousafzai was determined to stand up for what’s right. She started blogging for the BBC and spoke out against the Taliban. And, when she was able, Yousafzai returned to school.
But because of her activism and because she spoke out, Yousafzai became a target of the Taliban, and a masked gunman shot her in the head, neck and shoulder while she was on the school bus in October 2012.
Thankfully, Yousafzai made it. Since the horrendous attack, Yousafzai has become an activist for female education, human rights, women’s and children’s rights, Rohingya rights, refugee rights and more. She also created the Malala Fund and has become the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.
Yousafzai also went on to write a number of books like I Am Malala, Malala’s Magic Pencil and the upcoming We Are Displaced, and became the subject of a documentary called He Named Me Malala.
“It feels like this is not my life. It’s a second life,” Yousafzai previously said of her experience and activism. “People have prayed to God to spare me and I was spared for a reason – to use my life for helping people.”