Malala Yousafzai named youngest UN Messenger of Peace
The highest honour given to a citizen by the UN, Yousafzai received the award to promote girls education.
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| Malala believes 'education is a right of every child and especially for girls' [Stephanie Keith/Reuters] |
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has been appointed a UN Messenger of Peace to promote girls' education, more than four years after a Taliban gunman shot her in the head.
At 19, Yousafzai is the youngest Messenger of Peace, the highest honour given by the UN for an initial period of two years. She was also the youngest person to win the Nobel peace prize in 2014 when she was 17.
The Pakistani education activist came to prominence when she was shot in the head in 2012 as she was leaving school in Pakistan's Swat valley, northwest of the country's capital, Islamabad.
She was targeted for her campaign against efforts by the Taliban to deny women education.
"You are not only a hero, but you are a very committed and generous person,"
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Yousafzai.
Other current Messengers of Peace include actors Leonardo di Caprio (climate change), Charlize Theron (prevention of HIV and elimination of violence against women), and Michael Douglas (disarmament).
Yousafzai has become a regular speaker on the global stage and visited refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya last July to highlight the plight of refugee girls from Burundi and Somalia.
"Now this is a new life, this is a second life and it is for the purpose of education.
"The extremists tried all their best to stop me, they tried to kill me and they didn't succeed," Yousafzai said on Monday.
I was so impressed at Malala's news.
I have known her since 2012
She is acting for
women education
peace
I support her as well. :)
All can be a messenger of peace.
We can be!! together XD
