Yousafzai, Malala, 1997–, Pakistani advocate for girls' education. When Islamic militants took control of her native Swat in 2009, she wrote—with the encouragement of her father, an educator—an anonymous blog for BBC Urdu about the harsh conditions of militant rule and the closing of schools for girls. When her identity was revealed later in 2009, she continued to campaign in Pakistan for educaton for girls. In 2012 the Pakistani Taliban attempted to assassinate her for her stand on education; she was treated in Pakistan and then England, where she remained in exile after her recovery. Subsequently, she has continued her campaign globally, speaking out as well against child marriage and on other issues. In 2014 she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi of India for their work to protect children and secure them an education. The youngest person to win the prize, she became a UN messenger of peace in 2017. She has written two books for young readers, I Am Malala (2014, with P. McCormick) and We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls around the World (2019).
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