Pakistan's Malala wins EU's Sakharov rights prize

Google – AFP, 10 October 2013

Malala Yousafzai gives a speech after receiving the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya

 Award at the Southbank Centre in central London on October 4, 2013 (AFP/File,

Justin Tallis)

Strasbourg — Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage activist nominated for Friday's Nobel Peace Prize, was awarded the prestigious Sakharov human rights prize by the European Parliament on Thursday.

To thunderous applause announcing the prize, the parliament's president Martin Schulz said "Malala bravely stands for the right of all children to be granted a fair education. This right for girls is far too commonly neglected."

The parliament's vote for Malala amid a shortlist of three nominees "acknowledges the incredible strength of this young woman," Schulz added.

The 16-year-old has become an emblem of the fight against the most radical forms of Islamism.

She was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban on October 9 last year for speaking out against them and has gone on to become a global ambassador for the right of all children to go to school.

A bookstore employee displays copies of

the memoirs of Pakistani child activist

Malala Yousafzai in Islamabad on

October 8, 2013 (AFP/File, Aamir

Qureshi)

Her old school closed Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of her shooting.

She was taken to Britain for treatment in the wake of the attack and now goes to school in the central city of Birmingham.

Feted by world leaders and celebrities for her courage, she has addressed the UN, this week published an autobiography, and could become the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Friday.

In an interview with Pakistani radio station City89 FM this week she said she had not yet earned that accolade.

"There are many people who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize and I think that I still need to work a lot," she said.

There was no immediate response from Malala, currently in New York, to winning the 50,000-euro ($65,000) Sakharov prize. It will be handed to the teenager at a ceremony in Strasbourg on November 20.

Past winners of the prize include South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Malala first rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling the difficulties of life under the rule of the Taliban, who controlled Swat valley from 2007 until they were kicked out by the army in 2009.

Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai speaks to

 the media after being greeted by United Nations 

Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the UN 

headquarters in New York on July 12, 2013

(AFP/File, Stan Honda)

In the region in deeply conservative northwest Pakistan, women are often expected to stay at home to cook and rear children and officials say only around half of girls go to school -- though this is up from 34 percent in 2011.

Though the brutal rule of the Taliban has ended, pockets of militancy remain, with schools regularly being destroyed by insurgents.

Three jailed Belarussian dissidents and US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden had also been short-listed for the EU's Sakharov prize.

Belarussians Ales Belyatsky, Eduard Lobau and Mykola Statkevich were jailed after mass protests in Minsk in December 2010 against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Snowden, the US contractor who revealed widespread spying by the United states on friends and foes alike, has sought asylum in Russia.

Last year's award went to detained Iranians, lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and film-maker Jafar Panahi, to honour those "standing up for a better Iran."

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is to finally receive the EU Sakharov human rights prize she won in 1990 at the height of the Myanmar military crackdown, the European Parliament said this week.

Suu Kyi, now leader of the opposition in Myanmar and aiming to run in presidential polls in 2015, is due to address MEPs on October 22, according to the parliament's schedule.

Related Articles:

Malala Yousafzai: God has given me a second life


The brave girl who had to face armed assassins because she stood up for her right to educate herself

Aisha North, Feb 8, 2013

The manuscript of survival – part 265 - (Constant Companions channeled through Aisha North)

Aisha North

As you have noticed, there are many stirrings in the undercurrent now, and some of the light is already starting to penetrate the fog that has enveloped mankind for such a long time. At the moment, this will seem to be mere pinpricks of light in a huge ocean of darkness, but do not let that fool you. As we have talked about so many times, this layer of darkness that still seems to cover most of your planet is only an illusion, a thin film of confusion covering up the new reality. And now, this reality will start to become more and more visible. Not only to you, but also to others out there, people who look upon themselves as no more than an ordinary citizen, but who will soon start to realize that they too have the power to change not only their own life, but also the lives of so many others.

And they will do so in a peaceful way, for we do not speak of a violent upsurging, far from it. For have you not witnessed already how the power and might of an armed scoundrel is not match for the power of the light? We refer of course to the story of the brave girl who had to face armed assassins because she stood up for her right to educate herself (From Aisha: I think they refer to the story of Malala Yousafzai). If you look closely at her story, you will see how the light penetrating her has been seeping into thousands, if not millions of others already. So she is indeed a shining example on how one of these pinpricks of light can blow away a huge area of fog and darkness, and how the forces of ill intent are no match for the light, for those bullets being aimed at her did not kill the light, it only made it that much stronger.

So let that be a lesson to you all on how nothing and no one can stop the light, no matter how hard they try. For the force of anger and hatred is not match for the love and compassion that is starting to grow on your planet now. And even if these forces of the old are trying their hardest to instill the old fear into you all, they will not succeed, no matter how many weapons they fire off, or how many people they beat to a pulp. For they cannot beat you now dear ones, you are the ones who have won this battle for the souls.

For in your soul, the light is growing stronger and stronger, and with it, the power you carry. And through your example, just like the girl who took the bullets in order to let the light shine out to the whole world, the change will come, step by step, person to person. For you are also brave, and even if you will never have to face the same hardships as this girl, you too will have to conquer the world with your actions. For you are indeed the bravest of the brave, and you have walked through fire to get where you are today. And doing that, you have liberated not only yourself, but thousands upon thousands of your fellow men and women. For you have hacked a trail trough that dense jungle of fear and darkness, and following in your footsteps are the rest of humanity. With a few exceptions of course, and they will clamor and cry as loud as they can in order to make you all believe that they still outnumber you. But they do not, and that is what you will all see as the days keep getting lighter and lighter, and those pinpricks of lights grow ever brighter and ever bigger.

So fear not, as fear has been diminished to such a state it is but a shadow of itself. That shadow is still touching the hearts of many around you, but that shadow is also thinning out, and it will be replaced by light in even the sturdiest of hearts. For light has no boundaries, only the fear has that now, so light is spreading out faster and faster, and the courage it inspires in you all is growing with it. So stand tall and proud, and know that you too has been a part of that journey from the darkest abyss and to this, the threshold of everlasting light. And know too that your actions will never go unnoticed, as you have all been instrumental in this about turn of the human race. So look around, and we think you will find these shining examples starting to emerge in every corner of your world, even in the places where you least expect them to. For, as we said, the light has no boundaries, certainly not one set by any human, and no line on the map or no wall, no matter how high it is, can keep it out. So again we say rejoice, for the morning has broken, and the day is about to start. And this day is one that will last forever.