French prize awarded to Malala Yousufzai

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius welcomed Ziauddin Yousufzai on Wednesday and reaffirmed France’s commitment to women’s right and solidarity with the values demonstrated by the latter’s daughter Malala Yousufzai. On December 10, 2012, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in the presence of President Asif Zardari, already had underlined that the attack against Malala was met by “universal and shared indignation” and “justified the decision by France to make education for all a major priority for development and cooperation”. The Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom – created on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Simone de Beauvoir’s birth – distinguishes men, women and voluntary organisations who, like Simone de Beauvoir, a world-renowned French writer and philosopher, fight to defend women’s rights wherever they are under threat. Supported by the Institut Français, Paris Diderot University and the international audit and consulting group Mazars, the prize is endowed with 20,000 euros.