Reuters

Oslo

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban for refusing to quit school, and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi received their Nobel Peace Prizes yesterday after two days of celebration honouring their work for children’s rights.

Malala became by far the youngest laureate, widely praised for her global campaigning since she was shot in the head on her school bus in 2012. Some groups in Pakistan, however, have accused her of being a puppet of the West and violating the tenets of conservative Islam.

“I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not,” said Malala, 17, better known by her first name, which is also the title of her book and the name of her foundation.

“It is the story of many girls,” she said in Oslo’s ornate city hall on the anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel’s death.

Malala dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to the “forgotten children who want education.”

“It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change,” she said.

“We decided to raise our voice and tell the Taliban that in the Qur’an it is mentioned that if you kill one person, you kill humanity. Neither their ideas nor their bullets could win. Since then, our voices have grown louder and louder.”

Speaking of the threats she faced over calling for the right to have an education, Malala summed up how she concluded she had two options:

“One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.”

She said modernisation and development have not meant the same for the entire world. “Today, in half of the world, we see rapid progress, modernisation and development. However, there are countries where millions still suffer from the very old problems of hunger, poverty, injustice and conflicts.

“Indeed, we are reminded in 2014 that a century has passed since the beginning of the First World War, but we still have not learnt all of the lessons that arose from the loss of those millions of lives a hundred years ago,” Malala said.

She called for the world leaders to unite and make education their top priority.

Malala said that she was glad she received the Nobel Peace Prize together with India’s Kailash Satyarthi because it showed the world that an Indian and a Pakistani could work together for children’s rights.

“I am also honoured to receive this award together with Kailash Satyarthi, who has been a champion of children’s rights for a long time... I am also glad that we can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani can be united in peace and together work for children’s rights,” said Malala in her acceptance speech.

Although the focus was undoubtedly on Oslo yesterday, Nobel Prize winners in literature, chemistry, physics, medicine and economics were gathering in Stockholm, due to receive their prizes from the King of Sweden later in the day.

Satyarthi, who is credited with saving around 80,000 children from slave labour sometimes in violent confrontations, kept a modest profile in Oslo and even conceded to being overshadowed by Malala surrounded by admirers.

“I’ve lost two of my colleagues,” Satyarthi said about his work. “Carrying the dead body of a colleague who is fighting for the protection of children is something I’ll never forget, even as I sit here to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Arriving in Norway with friends and young activists from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, Malala met thousands of children, walked the streets to greet supporters and will open an exhibit where her blood stained dress, worn when her school bus was attacked, was put on display.

“She’s very brave and tough, fighting even after the Taliban shot her in the head,” said Andrea, 12, who was among thousands of children hoping to greet Malala in downtown Oslo.

The award could also help the Norwegian Nobel Committee repair its reputation, damaged by controversial awards in recent years to the European Union and US President Barack Obama.

“I am pretty certain that I am also the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers,” Malala said. “I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that.”