Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi win Nobel - CNN.com
Congratulations to Malala Yousafzai for winning the 2014 Nobel Peace
Prize! The Pakistani girls' education activist, who survived an
assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012, has been lauded worldwide
for her advocacy on behalf of girls and women. Today, the Nobel Prize
committee announced that Malala will share the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
for her efforts to promote and protect girls' right to education. The
17-year-old is the youngest person to ever win the Peace Prize.
Malala shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian
children’s rights activist who has campaigned for decades against child
labor; his organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, has freed over 80,000
children from forced labor -- and worked to educate and rehabilitate
them so that they could go on to live normal lives. At the announcement,
the Nobel committee said, “The Nobel Committee regards it as an
important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to
join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.”
Since recovering from the attack, Malala has gone on to speak around the
world about the necessity for ensuring equal access to education. In
2013, UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a
petition in her name, calling for nations to ensure that all children
are in school by 2015. Speaking to the UN General Assembly on July 12,
2013, the first Malala Day, she said, “The wise saying, ‘The pen is
mightier than sword’ was true. The extremists are afraid of books and
pens. The power of education frightens them…. One child, one teacher,
one pen and one book can change the world.”
The Nobel Committee
fittingly made the announcement on the eve of the International Day of
the Girl, a day dedicated to promoting girls’ human rights and
challenging gender inequalities around the world. The theme of the 2014
International Day of the Girl is “Empowering adolescent girls: ending
the cycle of violence,” making Malala an excellent role model of how an
empowered, educated teen can change the world.
Satyarthi said the
prize was a “great moment for all those children” who have been
deprived of their childhood by being forced into work. He added:
“Everyone must acknowledge that child labour still exists in the world
in its ugliest form ... it must go.”
The Nobel committee singled out Satyarthi for “maintaining Gandhi’s tradition.”
You can read more about the award and watch a video of the announcement at http://cnn.it/1rkNoNZ
