Malala, the educational campaigner from Swat Valley, Pakistan, came to public attention by writing for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban. Using the pen name Gul Makai, she often spoke about her family’s fight for girls’ education in her community. In October 2012, Malala was targeted by the Taliban and shot in the head as she was returning from school on a bus. She miraculously survived and continues her campaign for education. In recognition of her courage and advocacy, Malala was honored with the National Youth Peace Prize in Pakistan in 2011, won both the International Children’s Peace Prize and the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award this year and honored as Harvard University's Humanitarian of the Year. She is the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize. She was short-listed for Timemagazine’s Person of the Year and has received numerous other awards. Her memoir "I AM MALALA: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban”, co-authored with Christina Lamb, was published on October 8th, a day short of the year since her shooting. In the book, Malala shares the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of the brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. Malala champions universal access to education through The Malala Fund (www.malalafund.org), which focuses on helping girls around the world go to school and raise their voices for the right to education.
She is currently studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and is traveling to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination to go to school. The Malala Fund is working so that their stories, like hers, can be heard around the world.