Pakistani teenager, Indian rights activist win Nobel Peace Prize

PanARMENIAN.Net - Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage education campaigner shot on school bus in 2012 by a Taliban gunman, has won the 2014 Nobel peace prize.

Malala won along with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist, the Guardian reports.

The two were named winner of the $1.11mln (8mln kronor) prize by the chairman of the Nobel committee - Norway’s former Prime Minister Thorbjoern Jagland - on Friday, Oct 10 morning.

Malala, now 17, was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago in Pakistan after coming to prominence for her campaigning for education for girls.

She won for what the Nobel committee called her “heroic struggle” for girls’ right to an education. She is the youngest ever winner of the prize.

After being shot she was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, where she was treated for life-threatening injuries.

She has since continued to campaign for girls’ education, speaking before the UN, meeting Barack Obama, being named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and last year publishing the memoir “I am Malala”.

Last month a gang of 10 Taliban fighters who tried to kill her were arrested, the Pakistan army claimed.

In a statement, the Nobel committee said: “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations. This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”

Satyarthi, 60, dedicated his prize to children in slavery, telling CNN-IBN: “It’s an honor to all those children who are still suffering in slavery, bonded labor and trafficking.”

He founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan - or the Save the Childhood Movement - in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of 80,000 children.

“It’s an honor to all my fellow Indians. I am thankful to all those who have been supporting my striving for more than the last 30 years,” he said.

Previous choices include illustrious names such as Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Martin Luther King - and, controversially, Barack Obama in 2009.

On Thursday, the Nobel committee stunned the literary world by choosing little-known French author Patrick Modiano for the prize.