OSLO, Norway—
Education campaigner Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday.
The youngest person ever to receive the honour, she was handed a gold medal and diploma at a ceremony in Oslo, joining the ranks of laureates including Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Aung San Suu Kyi.
The teenager was jointly awarded the peace prize with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi for her “heroic struggle” in favour of girls’ access to education.
Saying that all children have a right to childhood and education instead of forced labor, Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said “this world conscience can find no better expression than through” this year’s winners.
“Satyarthi and Yousafzai are precisely the people whom Alfred Nobel in his will calls ‘champions of peace’,” he said.
“A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what the world needs: more unity. Fraternity between the nations,” he added.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Yousafzai on Twitter.
I also congratulate the young Malala Yousafzai for the momentous achievement.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 10, 2014
The entire nation watches the ceremony in Oslo with great joy & immense pride. Congratulations @k_satyarthi!
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 10, 2014
Malala, who was nominated in the peace prize category last year also, had displayed tremendous courage even after the Taliban attack when she resolutely expressed her determination to carry on with her campaign for child rights and girls education in Pakistan.
Satyarthi, 60, gave up his job as an electrical engineer to run an NGO for rescuing children from forced labour and trafficking. Satyarthi’s NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) prides itself on liberating over 80,000 children from bonded labour in factories and workshops across India.
Speaking after receiving the award, Satyarthi asked audience to feel the child inside them and said the crime against children has no place in a civilised society. “Children are questioning our inaction and watching our action,” he said, adding that all religion teach to take care of children. Noting that the number of child labour has been reduced by a third, Satyarthi said, “My dream is to make every child free to develop…There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of children.”
Recounting his experience with the unprivileged people, he said, “I am representing the sound of silence of millions of children who are left behind.” “The credit to this honour goes to people who worked and sacrificed for freeing children,” he said.
Famed Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Pashto Singer Sardar Ali Takkar and Indian musician Amjad Ali Khan performed at the award ceremony.
Pakistan’s former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was among those present on the occasion.
Why o why did the taliban miss!! Shoot her again!!
History it would appear is not without a sense of irony. Alfred nobel was an inventory, his greatest achievement was the invention of dynamite – which lead to bombs grenades and ultimatley nuclear bombs. Yet his name is on the peace prize?!?? So it is actually befitting that yousafzai recieves british citizenship, nobel proze and lets nor forget the money – for doing nothing. This girl is not a hero for pakistani girls – shes just another western puppet now on their payroll.
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