Young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai has won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The award will be presented by the European Parliament in Starsbourg on November 20. It recognizes Malala’s work defending human rights and free thinking. She is also a favorite to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which would make her the youngest Nobel laureate yet. The Nobel committee is expected to announce the winner this Friday.
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament,who announced the laureate, said, “By awarding the Sakharov Prize to Malala Yousafzai, the European Parliament acknowledges the incredible strength of this young woman. 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 Sakharov Prize was established in 1988, in honor of Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet dissident and scientist. The inaugural winners were Nelson Mandela and Anatoly Marchenko. Since 2010, the award has been accompanied by a monetary prize of €50,000 (approximately US$67,000).
Yousafzai is a student from Mingora in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, where the Taliban has banned girls from school since 2009. She gave a public speech in 2008, entitled, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to an education?” In 2009, she blogged anonymously for the BBC under the pseudonym of Gul Makai. After receiving a positive response, she and her family began to receive death threats from the Talibans, culminating in an assassination attempt in October 2012. She was shot in the head and neck by gunmen on a school bus.
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