I am currently reading I am Malala, the book written by the girl who stood up to the Taliban for girls' education and who is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala was born July 12, 1997. After the Taliban began attacking girls' schools where she lived, Malala gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in September 2008. The title of her talk was "How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right to Education?"
Malala and her family learned that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her because of her activism. Though frightened for the safety of her father, an anti-Taliban activist, she and her family initially felt that the fundamentalist group would not actually harm a child.
On October 9, 2012, when 15-year-old Malala was riding a bus with friends on their way home from school, a masked man boarded and shot her in her head. Nine months after being shot by the Taliban, Malala gave a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday in 2013. Malala highlighted her focus on education and women's rights, urging world leaders to change their policies.
Following the attack, Malala said that “the terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear, and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.”
“The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women... Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.”