Life Summary: Malala Yousafzai, Education Activist

Malala Yousafzai was banned from going to school at age 11 but ended up getting into Oxford University at age 20. This is the story of the young girl who survived being shot by the Taliban and used her experience to devote her life to advocate for the education of girls all around the world.

1997 – Malala Yousafzai is born at home in Mingora, Pakistan—a tourist spot known for its summer festivals. Her father is an educator and owner of a chain of private schools. She will later have 2 younger brothers and 2 pet chickens.

Age 10 – Taliban forces begin fighting the Pakistani Army in a battle for the Swat Valley area of Pakistan which Mingora is a part of. 

Shortly after – The Taliban gains control of most of the Swat Valley and begin banning women from going to school or the shops, along with banning television and music for everybody. Malala gives a speech titled “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” in response to it. 

Age 11 – Her father is asked by the BBC to get one of his students to blog about being a schoolgirl under the Taliban’s control. He can’t find any other students willing to do so so he offers his own daughter. She begins blogging for the BBC about what it’s like living with Taliban’s threats to deny girls their education. She goes by the name Gul Makai for it. 

Age 12 – After her BBC diary ends, she and her family are approached by the New York Times to be filmed in a documentary. In the meanwhile, the war in Swat Valley leads to Mingora being evacuated. Malala moves to the countryside to live with relatives. After the documentary, she is interviewed by more people for more television shows. She begins to publicly advocate for female education. 

Age 14 – Malala is nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize and wins Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. Her family starts getting death threats from the Taliban but they do not actually believe that the Taliban would harm a child.  

Age 15 – She is shot by a gunman when on the way home from school in a bus. The bullet goes into the left of her head and travels down her neck. She is flown to a military hospital in Peshawar in critical condition. Her skull is removed to help her swelling brain. She is then flown to England for more care while in a medically-induced coma. She survives after more surgeries. The Pakistani government pays for all of her treatment. She gets worldwide recognition after outrage brews over the incident. 

Age 16 – She starts going to school in England. She also gives a speech to the United Nations and publishes her first book, I Am Malala. Her birthday is now known as Malala Day around the world. She wins the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. She launches the Malala Fund with her father which works to make sure girls around the world have access to education for 12 years. 

Age 17 – She wins the Nobel Peace Prize for surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban. 

Age 18 – She opens a school in Lebanon for Syrian refugee girls. A documentary on her, He Named Me Malala, is released. She receives 6 A*s and 4 As for her GCSE O-Levels and 3 As for her A-Levels. In the meantime, in Pakistan, her book I Am Malala is banned in all private schools and her father is denounced as a traitor and an agent of the west.

Age 20 – She gets honorary Canadian citizenship—the youngest person to be awarded that in history. She publishes Malala’s Magic Pencil, a picture book about her childhood in Pakistan. She goes to Oxford to study philosophy, politics and economics.

Age 21 – She returns to Pakistan for the first time since being shot and meets with the Prime Minister to deliver a speech at his office. The next day, the group representing private schools in Pakistan organises an “I am not Malala Day”. She publishes “We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World.” 

2020 – Malala is presently 23 years old and is still a student at Oxford. 

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Photographs: Claude Truong-Ngo. Compiler: Sy
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