Malala Yousafzai is a 16-year-old teenager who was born in the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan. This town has been taken over by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) a student movement made up of those following Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan. The TTP is a militant group that goes against the Pakistani state and enforces their own rules. They’re notorious for their poor and demeaning treatment of women. They don’t believe that women should be educated or employed and give women very few rights. They issued a law that banned girls from attending school and bombed the existing schools. Those that did not abide by the rules were terrorized and often killed.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was interested in what it was like to live under the Taliban rule and asked Malala if she could write about it. At the age of eleven (with permission of her father) Malala started to write a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC Urdu website. She talked about what her life was like, how the Taliban tried to take over the country, and also included her beliefs about education for girls. She used the blog to bring awareness to the poor treatment of women in the Swat District due to the Taliban, how she secretly attends school even though the Taliban has banned it, and what her daily events consist of; such as studying for exams and completing her homework. A year later when she stopped blogging, the New York Times filmed a documentary about her and her father. She also agreed to take part in several interviews by various news stations. As a result, her identity was revealed, and she began promoting women’s rights and education publicly. She’s won several peace prizes and was becoming well known for her education efforts.

The Taliban soon became aware of her actions and saw that she was going against their laws and regulations. They wanted to thwart her activist efforts by sending her anonymous death threats through various forms of social media, newspaper articles and slipped notes under the door of her house. Malala, being the strong and determined teenager she is, did not listen to them and continued to openly speak out against the Taliban’s efforts. In 2012, the Taliban had nothing left to do but kill her. They found the van she takes home from school, leaped inside, held up a black pistol and shot at her three times, with one bullet just missing her brain. She was immediately airlifted to the hospital and her recovery was nothing short of a miracle.

The assassination attempt brought about worldwide reactions and news coverage. Soon the whole world had found out about her efforts and the Taliban’s attempt to stop her. This also inspired Malala to write her autobiography “I Am Malala” which describes in detail her story and tells the tale of a remarkable girl who stands for peace and education.

Malala is a teenager who will make you believe that we can change the world. She spoke in front of the United Nations and stated, “They thought that the bullet would silence us, but they failed.” A year after her attack she is still standing up for women’s rights and promoting education for all. In Pakistan, over two million people signed a petition, which led to the ratification of the first Right to Education Bill. Despite a series of extraordinary events, Malala’s efforts never failed.

-Laura