Today’s Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai first came to international attention when she took the brave step of agreeing to blog for the BBC about her life under the Taliban occupation in Pakistan’s Swat valley. On 9 October 2012 a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she rode a bus home from school. Since her recovery she has been awarded an endless string of awards, addressing audiences around the world. Here are some of her most impressive moments.
July 2013, on her 16th birthday, a still-recovering Malala addressed the UN on the importance of education:
We realise the importance of our voice when we are silenced. In the same way, when we were in Swat, the north of Pakistan, we realised the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns. The wise saying, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’ It is true. The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them.
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