World Malala day: Every year on July 12th, the world celebrates Malala Day in honor of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai. On July 12, the United Nations recognizes Malala Day in honor of education activist Malala Yousafzai. It’s also her birthday and the day she spoke to the UN in 2013. As she’s emphasized, it’s also a day to recognize advocacy for education rights all over the world. Many organizations also recognize Malala Day as an opportunity to highlight the important work being done for education.
Malala Day is celebrated every year on July 12 on the occasion of young activist Malala Yousafzai’s birthday. The United Nations (UN) designated this date to be marked as Malala Day to honour the young woman who has been advocating for female education. The day is used as an opportunity to appeal to world leaders to ensure compulsory and free education for every child.
On July 12, 2013, then 16-year-old Pakistani activist delivered a moving speech at the headquarters of the United Nations. She highlighted the need for access to women’s education globally and called the world leaders to reform their policies. Malala was widely appreciated for her remarkable speech. Since July 12 was her birthday, therefore the UN promptly declared that the day will be celebrated as ‘Malala Day’ to honour the young activist.
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai was born in 12th July 1997. At the age of 17 she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. She is the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate, the second Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize.
She is the daughter of education activist Ziauddin Yousafzai in Swat, Pakistan and was named after the Afghan folk heroine Malalai of Maiwand. Her role models are Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Barack Obama, and Benazir Bhutto.
In 2009, at the age of 11, she wrote a blog under her pseudonym Gul Makai for the BBC Urdu to detail her life during the Taliban’s occupation of Swat city in Pakistan which is her hometown. The following summer, journalist Adam B. Ellick made a New York Times documentary about her life as the Pakistan Armed Forces launched Operation Rah-e-Rast against the militants in Swat. She rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by activist Desmond Tutu.
On 9 October 2012, while on a bus in Swat District after taking an exam, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt targeting her for her activism; the gunman fled the scene. She was struck in the head by a bullet and remained unconscious and in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, but her condition later improved enough for her to be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK.
After her recovery, Yousafzai became a prominent activist for the right to education. Based in Birmingham, she co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organisation, with Shiza Shahid. In 2013, she co-authored I Am Malala ( The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban ), an international best seller.
“I am Malala” was published on 8 October 2013, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK and Little, Brown and Company in the US.
The book details the early life of Yousafzai, her father’s ownership of schools and activism, the rise and fall of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in Swat Valley and the assassination attempt made against Yousafzai on 9 October 2012.
From March 2013 to July 2017, Yousafzai was a student at the all-girls Edgbaston High School in Birmingham. In August 2015, she received 6 A*s and 4 As at GCSE level. At A-Level, she studied Geography, History, Mathematics and Religious Studies. Also applying to Durham University, the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics (LSE), Yousafzai was interviewed at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in December 2016 and received a conditional offer of three As in her A‑Levels; in August 2017, she was accepted to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).
In February 2020, climate change activist Greta Thunberg travelled to Oxford University to meet Yousafzai. On 19 June 2020, Yousafzai said after passing her final examinations that she had completed her PPE degree at Oxford; she graduated with honours.
Malala has been felicitated with several awards and honours:
- In 2012, she was awarded the first-ever National Youth Peace Prize by the Pakistan government.
- In 2014, at age 17, She became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi of India in recognition of her efforts for children’s rights which had begun even before she was shot.
- The UN declared her as “the most famous teenager in the world” in its Decade in Review report in late 2019.
- Malala has also been awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the House of Commons in Canada.
- The documentary on the activist, He Named Me Malala, was shortlisted for the Oscars in 2015.
- She has also authored another book titled We Are Displaced which chronicles her experiences of travelling the world and visiting refugee camps.
- The 2013, 2014 and 2015 issues of Time magazine featured her as one of the most influential people globally.
- In 2017 she was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada.
On 9 November 2021, Yousafzai married Asser Malik, a manager with the Pakistan Cricket Board, in Birmingham. For more articles visit read4knowledge.com