Yousafzai, Satyarthi Share Nobel Prize for Children’s Rights

By Khurrum Anis and Saleha Mohsin

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban, and  India ’s Kailash Satyarthi were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their advocacy of rights for children.

“It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in awarding the 8 million-krona ($1.1 million) prize. “In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation.”

Yousafzai, 17, became the first teenager to win the prize, announced today in Oslo. Satyarthi, 60, is a children’s rights activist and his Global March Against Child Labor movement is now represented in more than 140 countries, according to Architects of Peace Foundation.

Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the committee, said at the announcement that Satyarthi has in Gandhi’s spirit mobilized public opinion, in India and in other countries.

“It’s not a compensation for the fact that  Mahatma Gandhi never got the prize,” Jagland said. “I don’t know why he didn’t get the prize. But we should then appreciate that one who is taking up his tradition gets the prize.”

Defying Threats Satyarthi thanked the Nobel committee for recognizing the plight of millions of children who are suffering in this modern age,  Press Trust of India  cited him as saying.

Yousafzai, while traveling to school in  Pakistan ’s Swat Valley in October 2012, was shot in the head in retaliation for her campaign for girls to be given equal rights to schooling, defying threats from militants in her hometown of Mingora. The bullet struck just above her left eye, grazing her brain.

She now attends school in Birmingham, U.K., where her father works at the consulate, after being flown to the U.K. for emergency treatment. She gained global recognition after pledging to continue her struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism.

The prize, along with literature, physics, medicine and chemistry honors, was created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel  and first awarded in 1901. Winners include the European Union, as well as U.S. President  Barack Obama ,  Martin Luther King Jr . and Mother Teresa.

Women’s Voice “The extremists were and they are afraid of books and pens,” Yousafzai said in a speech last year at a UN youth assembly. “The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.”

Taliban guerrillas carry out attacks in Swat, an area they previously controlled before a 10-week army offensive starting in 2009 ending their rule. The Taliban had beheaded local officials and burned schools in a two-year fight to impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law that uprooted 2 million people from their homes in the forested, mile-high valley that lies 155 miles north of the capital Islamabad.

“This is good news not only for Malala or for her family or for the people of Swat, but for all the people of Pakistan,” Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said at a press conference in Islamabad. “We’re proud of this small girl, who through her bravery and commitment, at a very small age has won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Basic Education Yousafzai has risen to fame in a country where only 40 percent of  adult  women can read and write compared with 90 percent in  Indonesia , the world’s largest Muslim country.

The country’s former Prime Minister  Benazir Bhutto  was killed in an alleged Taliban attack in 2007. Pakistan has also had a female governor of its central bank, Shamshad Akhtar, as well as woman speaker of parliament in Fahmida Mirza.

Millions of Pakistani women are deprived of basic education and equal work opportunities. Of those women only 22 percent above 15 go out and work in Pakistan, compared to 78 percent of males, according to a study by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Yousafzai started blogging under a pseudonym for the  BBC  when she was 11 years old, chronicling Taliban oppression and her love of learning. The following summer the  New York  Times filmed a documentary about her life. As she rose in prominence, the Taliban targeted her for maligning insurgents.

“The terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambition,” Yousafzai said last year. “But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.”

Nigeria Girls Yousafzai celebrated her 17th birthday by visiting  Nigeria  to campaign for the release of more than 200 school girls abducted by local militants. She met president Goodluck Jonathan and the families of the kidnapped children.

She has also won the Amnesty International Award, the International Children’s Peace Prize and the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize.

Yousafzai is the second Pakistani to win a  Nobel Prize  after  Abdus Salam , whose works in the field of particle physics earned him an award in 1979, which he shared with two other scientists.

The award will be handed out at a ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Nobel.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at  kkhan14@bloomberg.net ; Saleha Mohsin in Oslo at  smohsin2@bloomberg.net

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban, and  India ’s Kailash Satyarthi were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their advocacy of rights for children.

“It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in awarding the 8 million-krona ($1.1 million) prize. “In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation.”

Yousafzai, 17, became the first teenager to win the prize, announced today in Oslo. Satyarthi, 60, is a children’s rights activist and his Global March Against Child Labor movement is now represented in more than 140 countries, according to Architects of Peace Foundation.

Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the committee, said at the announcement that Satyarthi has in Gandhi’s spirit mobilized public opinion, in India and in other countries.

“It’s not a compensation for the fact that  Mahatma Gandhi never got the prize,” Jagland said. “I don’t know why he didn’t get the prize. But we should then appreciate that one who is taking up his tradition gets the prize.”

Defying Threats Satyarthi thanked the Nobel committee for recognizing the plight of millions of children who are suffering in this modern age,  Press Trust of India  cited him as saying.

Yousafzai, while traveling to school in  Pakistan ’s Swat Valley in October 2012, was shot in the head in retaliation for her campaign for girls to be given equal rights to schooling, defying threats from militants in her hometown of Mingora. The bullet struck just above her left eye, grazing her brain.

She now attends school in Birmingham, U.K., where her father works at the consulate, after being flown to the U.K. for emergency treatment. She gained global recognition after pledging to continue her struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism.

The prize, along with literature, physics, medicine and chemistry honors, was created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel  and first awarded in 1901. Winners include the European Union, as well as U.S. President  Barack Obama ,  Martin Luther King Jr . and Mother Teresa.

Women’s Voice “The extremists were and they are afraid of books and pens,” Yousafzai said in a speech last year at a UN youth assembly. “The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.”

Taliban guerrillas carry out attacks in Swat, an area they previously controlled before a 10-week army offensive starting in 2009 ending their rule. The Taliban had beheaded local officials and burned schools in a two-year fight to impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law that uprooted 2 million people from their homes in the forested, mile-high valley that lies 155 miles north of the capital Islamabad.

“This is good news not only for Malala or for her family or for the people of Swat, but for all the people of Pakistan,” Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said at a press conference in Islamabad. “We’re proud of this small girl, who through her bravery and commitment, at a very small age has won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Basic Education Yousafzai has risen to fame in a country where only 40 percent of  adult  women can read and write compared with 90 percent in  Indonesia , the world’s largest Muslim country.

The country’s former Prime Minister  Benazir Bhutto  was killed in an alleged Taliban attack in 2007. Pakistan has also had a female governor of its central bank, Shamshad Akhtar, as well as woman speaker of parliament in Fahmida Mirza.

Millions of Pakistani women are deprived of basic education and equal work opportunities. Of those women only 22 percent above 15 go out and work in Pakistan, compared to 78 percent of males, according to a study by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Yousafzai started blogging under a pseudonym for the  BBC  when she was 11 years old, chronicling Taliban oppression and her love of learning. The following summer the  New York  Times filmed a documentary about her life. As she rose in prominence, the Taliban targeted her for maligning insurgents.

“The terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambition,” Yousafzai said last year. “But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.”

Nigeria Girls Yousafzai celebrated her 17th birthday by visiting  Nigeria  to campaign for the release of more than 200 school girls abducted by local militants. She met president Goodluck Jonathan and the families of the kidnapped children.

She has also won the Amnesty International Award, the International Children’s Peace Prize and the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize.

Yousafzai is the second Pakistani to win a  Nobel Prize  after  Abdus Salam , whose works in the field of particle physics earned him an award in 1979, which he shared with two other scientists.

The award will be handed out at a ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Nobel.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at  kkhan14@bloomberg.net ; Saleha Mohsin in Oslo at  smohsin2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at  jbergman@bloomberg.net  Tasneem Hanfi Brogger