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Posted: 10/16/2014 at 11:37am
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Pakistani Child Education Activist Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian Child Rights Campaigner, Have Jointly Won the Nobel Peace Prize
By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
LONDON (ANS) -- At the age of just 17, Malala is the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Malala
(via Joao Pina/Redcux) | The teenager was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Oct. 2012 for campaigning for girls’ education. She now lives in Birmingham in the UK.
A story by BBC News reported that Malala said she was “honored” to receive the award, saying it made her feel “more powerful and courageous.”
She said she found out the news after being called out of her chemistry class at her school in Birmingham.
“I'm really happy to be sharing this award with a person from India,” the BBC reported she said at a news conference, before joking that she couldn't pronounce Satyarthi's surname.
The Nobel committee praised the pair's “struggle against the suppression of children and young people.”
The BBC reported said the committee said at the Nobel Institute in Oslo that Satyarthi has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.”
The 60-year-old founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or the Save the Childhood Movement, which campaigns for child rights and an end to human trafficking.
Reacting to the news, Satyarthi told the BBC, “It's a great honor for all the Indians. It’s an honor for all those children who have been still living in slavery despite of all the advancement in technology, market and economy. And I dedicate this award to all those children in the world.”
Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, paid tribute to Malala's achievements.
He said, “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai, has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education and has shown by example that children and young people too can contribute to improving their own situations.”
He added, “This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education.”
The BBC reported the committee said it was important that a Muslim and a Hindu, a Pakistani and an Indian, had joined in what it called a common struggle for education and against extremism.
Source: Assist News Service
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Topic: Pakistani Child Education Activist Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian Child Rights Campaigner, Have Jointly Won the Nobel Peace Prize
