Who is Malala Yousafzai?
July 1997 Birthday
Malala Yousafzai was born in the Swat District of Pakistan's north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, to Ziauddin Yousafzai and his wife Tor Pekai Yousafzai.
She has two brothers.
January 2000 Family and Ethnicity
Yousafzai was raised in an independent-minded, lower-middle-class household and her father
ran a chain of schools.
Her family is Sunni Muslim of Pashtun ethnicity, belonging to the Yusufzai tribe.
December 2004 Childhood
Fluent in Pashto, Urdu and English, Yousafzai was educated mostly by her father, who is
a poet and educational activist.
He sensed very early that there was something special about Malala and encouraged her to
think and express herself freely.
February 2005 Early Life
Malala aspired to be a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician
instead.
He allowed her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had
been sent to bed.
September 2008 Activism
She started speaking about Education Rights when she was just 11 years old.
For first time, Malala addressed an audience at a local press club in Peshawar and questioned
the audacity of the Taliban, an Islamist militant organisation, to snatch away her basic right
to education.
December 2008 BBC Blogger
At the behest of her father, she began writing an anonymous blog for the ‘BBC Urdu’ website
under the pseudonym ‘Gul Makai.’
She wrote about how fewer girls dared to attend school because of the Taliban, and how the
Taliban had forced the school shut.
March 2009 Fruitful Efforts
With her efforts, Malala successfully got the schools to open.
Her identity was later revealed, and she became a popular teenage activist who was often invited
to deliver speeches.
She received an award from the prime minister of Pakistan for her activism.
January 2011 Preparing for the World
Yousafzai trained with local girls' empowerment organisation, Aware Girls, run by Gulalai
Ismail, whose training includes advice on women's rights and empowerment to peacefully
oppose radicalisation through education.
October 2012 Murder Attempt
While returning home from school, a Taliban gunman shot Malala in the head.
The bullet went through her head and neck, and ended up in her shoulder.
She survived the attack and received immediate treatment at a hospital in Peshawar and was
later transferred to Birmingham, England for further care.
October 2012 United Nations Petition
Gordon Brown, the former British PM, visited Yousafzai while she was in the hospital, and
launched a petition in her name and "in support of what Malala fought for".
Petition's main demand was to leave no child out of school by 2015, with the hope that
"girls like Malala everywhere will soon be going to school".
January 2013 Support from the World
Her ordeal with the Taliban and her survival led to an outpouring of support from all corners
of the world.
She started the ‘Malala Fund’ organization advocating for girls' education the same year
to further her cause.
July 2013 United Nations Conference
She gave a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday; the UN dubbed the event
‘Malala Day.’
The same year, her autobiography ‘I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was
Shot by the Taliban’ was published.
March 2014 Getting Education
After recovery, Yousafzai was a pupil at the all-girls Edgbaston High School in Birmingham.
In August 2017, she was accepted to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lady
Margaret Hall, Oxford.
October 2014 Symbol of Hope
Malala was awarded the ‘Nobel Peace Prize’ along with Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi
“for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right
of all children to education.”
She became the youngest Nobel laureate.
July 2015 Continuing Activism
On her birthday, Yousafzai opened a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian
border, for Syrian refugees.
Yousafzai called on world leaders to invest in "books, not bullets"
January 2016 Life Depicted on Screen
Yousafzai was the subject of the 2015 documentary He Named Me Malala, which was nominated for
the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
In 2020, an Indian Hindi-language biographical film Gul Makai was also released portraying
her life and struggles.
March 2018 Visit to Pakistan
Yousafzai returned to Pakistan for the first time since the shooting.
Meeting Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she gave a speech in which she said it had
been her dream to return "without any fear".
January 2020 Empowerment through Malala Fund
Funding education projects in six countries and working with international leaders, the
Malala Fund joins with local partners to invest in innovative solutions on the ground and
advocates globally for quality secondary education for all girls.
March 2021 Apple Partnership
A multi-year partnership between Yousafzai and Apple was announced.
She will work on programming for Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV+.
The work will span dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and children’s series, and draw
on her ability to inspire people around the world.”
June 2021 The Road Ahead
Currently residing in Birmingham, Malala is an active proponent of education as a fundamental
social and economic right.
Through the Malala Fund and with her own voice, Malala Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate
for the power of education and for girls to become agents of change in their communities.