Malala Yousafzai Photo: (©Torbjørn Kjosvold/FMS/CreativeCommons/Flickr)

Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai has been awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Yousafzai shares the award with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist.

Yousafzai was awarded the Doughty Street Chambers Advocacy award based on her work at the 2013 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards.

In October 2012, a Taliban gunman shot education campaigner Malala Yousafzai in the head and chest for her activism, as she was returning home from school in Pakistan’s Swat district. After months of treatment, she returned to school in Birmingham later that year.

The schoolgirl’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, accepted the award on his daughter’s behalf saying:‘I want to give a message to the world. I didn’t do anything special. As a father, I did one thing, I gave her the right of freedom of expression. All fathers and mothers, give your daughters and sons freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is a most important right. The solution of any conflict is to say the right thing, to speak the truth.’

At 17, Yousafzai is the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Prize. Fellow recipient, Kailash Satyarthi has lead various peaceful protests and demonstrations, focusing on the exploitation of children for financial gain. He formed the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, translated as, Save the Childhood Movement, which combats child labour.

Kailash Satyarthi (Photo: ©José Cruz/Agência Senado/CreativeCommons/Flickr)

This article was posted on 10 Oct 2014 at indexoncensorship.org.