NETHERLANDS/FILE: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year for demanding education for girls, receives Children's Peace Prize

Record ID: 174052

  • Title: NETHERLANDS/FILE: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year for demanding education for girls, receives Children's Peace Prize
  • Date: 6th September 2013
  • Summary: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (SEPTEMBER 6, 2013) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE OLD PARLIAMENT HALL OF THE KNIGHTS ENTRANCE TO THE HALL CHILDREN'S PEACE PRIZE WINNER, MALALA YOUSAFZAI, ENTERING THE HALL OF THE KNIGHTS PEOPLE APPLAUDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER, TAWAKKOL KARMAN, SAYING: "The experts committee of International Children's Peace Prize has decided to award the 2013 Children's Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai. Congratulations." KARMAN CLAPPING, GREETING YOUSAFZAI ON STAGE DUTCH PRIME MINISTER MARK RUTTE APPLAUDING VARIOUS OF MALALA YOUSAFZAI HOLDING PRIZE YOUSAFZAI ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHILDREN'S PRIZE WINNER 2013, MALALA YOUSAFZAI, SAYING: "I dedicate myself to this cause of education. My goal is education of all children around the world, whether white or black, whether Muslims or Christians, whether boys or girls, white or black. Dear friends, working together, I believe that we will achieve this goal. Thank you very much for coming today." YOUSAFZAI LEAVING THE PODIUM, GUESTS APPLAUDING
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime,International Relations,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA45YRVSWO16WVDN1ILBGD95OCT
  • Story Text: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year for demanding education for girls, was awarded the Children's Peace Prize on Friday (September 6).
    2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman presented 16-year-old Malala with the award in The Hague.
    "The experts committee of International Children's Peace Prize has decided to award the 2013 Children's Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai. Congratulations," said the 32-year-old Yemeni activist, journalist and mother of three.
    Yousafzai was shot at close range by gunmen in October as she left school in Pakistan's Swat Valley, northwest of the country's capital Islamabad.
    She was targeted for her campaign against the Islamist Taliban efforts to deny women education.
    The teenager was treated in Pakistan before the United Arab Emirates provided an air ambulance to fly her to Britain, where doctors mended parts of her skull with a titanium plate.
    Unable to safely return to Pakistan, Yousafzai enrolled in a school in Birmingham, England.
    During the ceremony in The Hague, Yousafzai received a special statuette, financial support for her education and some 100,000 euros to be donated to projects focused on improving access to education for girls in Pakistan.
    "I dedicate myself to this cause of education. My goal is education of all children around the world, whether white or black, Muslims or Christians, boys or girls, white or black. Dear friends, working together, I believe that we will achieve this goal. Thank you very much for coming today," Yousafzai upon receiving the prize.
    Pakistan has 5 million children out of school, a number only surpassed by Nigeria, which has more than 10 million children out of school, according to the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.
    The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt on Yousafzai, calling her efforts pro-Western. Two of her classmates were also wounded.
    The Pakistan Taliban, formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), formed in 2007, is an umbrella group uniting various militant factions operating in the volatile north-western tribal areas along the porous border with Afghanistan.
    Under Taliban rule in neighbouring Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, women were forced to cover up and were banned from voting, most work and leaving their homes unless accompanied by a husband or male relative.
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