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