Malala Yousafzai: A Modern Day Hero

"The content of a book holds the power of education and it is with this power that we can shape our future and changes lives"

Malala Yousfzai is an eighteen year old Pakistani women who has made leaps and bonds in the realm of female education. She is known as a human rights advocate for the women in the northwestern region of Pakistan. Her primary reason for focusing on this area is because the Taliban has banded girls from attending school. In 2009 Yousfzai wrote a blog and sent it to BBC. In the blog she explained the difficult situation the Taliban put the girls under and she also outlined her goals to promote education for girls.

In 2012 Yousfazai was shot three times in the head by a gunman associated with the Taliban. This sparked a global uproar. A week after the shooting Gordon Brown, a member on the United Nation Special Envoy for Global Education, created a petition that contained three demands in Yousfzai's honor called "in support of what Malala fought for":

• We call on Pakistan to agree to a plan to deliver education for every child.
• We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls.
• We call on international organisations to ensure the world's 61 million out-of-school children are in education by the end of 2015

On October 10, 2014, Yousafzai became the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.