Malala wins Sakharov human rights prize
Print Edition
Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, won the EU’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize yesterday, drawing a fresh threat of murder by the Taliban.
To thunderous applause announcing the European Parliament prize, the assembly’s president Martin Schulz said “Malala bravely stands for the right of all children to be granted a fair education. This right for girls is far too commonly neglected.”
The parliament’s vote for Malala from a shortlist of three nominees “acknowledges the incredible strength of this young woman,” Schulz added.
The 16-year-old has become an emblem of the fight against the most radical forms of Islamism.
She was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban on October 9 last year for speaking out against them and has gone on to become a global ambassador for the right of all children to go to school.
In Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan immediately vowed a fresh attempt on her life “even in America or the UK.”
“She has done nothing,” TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said. “She is getting awards because she is working against Islam.”
Malala was taken to Britain for treatment in the wake of last year’s attack and now goes to school in the central city of Birmingham.
Feted by world leaders and celebrities for her courage, she has addressed the UN, this week published an autobiography, and could become the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate today.
In an interview with Pakistani radio station City89 FM this week Malala said she had not yet earned that accolade.
“There are many people who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize and I think that I still need to work a lot,” she said.
The 50,000-euro (US$65,000) Sakharov prize will be handed to Malala at a ceremony in Strasbourg on November 20.
Past winners include South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Malala first rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling the difficulties of life under the rule of the Taliban, who controlled Swat Valley from 2007 until they were kicked out by the army in 2009.
In the deeply conservative northwest region of Pakistan, women are often expected to stay at home to cook and rear children and officials say only around half of girls go to school, though this is up from 34 percent in 2011.
US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden had also been shortlisted for this year’s Sakharov human rights prize.
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