Send Books Not Drones: Malala Yousafzai On Nobel Win, Continuing Fight For Girls' Education

Malala Yousafzai was in chemistry class when a teacher informed her she had won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps as amazing as her historic win was the youngest ever laureate’s next move — she stayed in class. A tweet from her Malala Fund declared –

Eleven days later — Tuesday — Malala, 17, spent the morning meeting with Philadelphia school children (“I have met amazing girls, as well as a few boys who are also a little bit amazing”) and in the afternoon addressed close to 1,000 young game changers at FORBES first annual Under 30 Summit in a conversation with journalist Ronan Farrow. After entering to a standing ovation, Malala told those assembled that she wasn’t nervous today or when she spoke at the United Nations. But she was scared when she had to address her classmates in Buckingham, England at an assembly following her win.

Of that win she said, “It gives hope to many young children and many young people that their work is appreciated, and that what they are doing for the cause of education matters. Sometimes we think that we are children and that what we do will not have an impact. It shows that our work does have impact and it can bring about a great change.”

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While confident beyond her years in front of a crowd Yousafzai’s journey began a long way from the city of brotherly (and sisterly) love’s massive convention center. She was born in 1997 in Mingora, a district in northwest Pakistan. Her father ran a local school and held the locally radical belief that girls should be educated too. Even though Malala’s mother is illiterate her father consults her before making any decisions. This has helped the eldest of their three children and only daughter feel emboldened. Of course, it helps that Malala is smart. She thrives in school and has always been motivated by competition with her classmates.

As the Taliban took over the Yousafzais’ scenic home region, insisting it went against Islamic law for girls to go to school, Malala refused to give up on her thirst for knowledge and camaraderie. Instead she spoke out. She made speeches. She appeared in a documentary about the Taliban closing girls’ schools in Pakistan’s Swat Valley were she lived. She even explicitly detailed her experience and feelings about them in a blog for BBC. The blog was anonymous at first but gave a vivid voice to young girls’ struggle in Pakistan and elsewhere.

While Malala was empowering people around the world, she emerged as a threat to the Taliban at home. Two years ago, a Taliban militant stopped the school bus carrying Malala and her classmates and asked, “Who is Malala?” He then shot her in the head.

It was touch and go for a while but Malala survived. Her campaign continues. Recently Malala met with President Barack Obama and shared through thoughts with him. She listed them for to the Under 30 crowd –

1. If the money the United States spends on weapons went toward global education change would come. “The best way to fight terrorism,” she said emphatically, “is through education.” 
2. A drone attack may kill two or three terrorists but it will not kill terrorism. If the drones continue terrorism will spread.
3. America should support democracy in Pakistan. This is how it will become a developed country.

She would not share the president’s responses, but chuckled when asked, noting that answers are “always political.” Despite her youth Malala has learned not to count on anyone else to change the world. Instead she’s doing it herself.

At home, she insists, her life is quite normal. She fights with her younger brothers (when she wouldn’t give one her iPod he told her, “The world thinks you are the bravest girl in the world, I think you are the cruelest girl”). Just like her classmates, Malala is expected to complete her homework. Bombarded by phone calls the weekend after winning the Nobel Malala did not finish her English homework by Monday morning. “My teacher asked, ‘where’s your homework?’ I said, ‘Miss, I’m sorry, I won the prize yesterday. I was busy,’” she half joked. The teacher responsed was, “so what?” Malala promised to hand in the assignment the following day.

Despite the juggling act, Malala says she would not change her lot. “The role I have right now it is not something that has been given to me by someone,” she said. “It is something I have chosen for myself.”