Malala spoke to BBC HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur in Oslo as she prepares to receive Nobel Peace Prize today. The 17-year-old becomes the youngest Nobel laureate, adding yet another distinction to a long list.
"I want to serve my country and my dream is that my country becomes a developed country and I see every child get an education," Malala said.
"If I can serve my country best through politics and through becoming a prime minister then I would definitely choose that," she added.
Malala was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she travelled on a school bus in response to her campaign for girls' education. Although her injuries almost killed her, she recovered after being flown for extensive surgery in Birmingham, central England. She has been based in England with her family ever since, continuing both her education and activism.
Commenting on her campaign for education, Malala said she had wished from the beginning to see children going to school.
"Now this peace prize is very important for me and it has really given me more hope, more courage, and I feel stronger than before because I see many people are with me,” she said.
"There are more responsibilities but I have also put responsibilities on myself. I feel I am answerable to God and to myself and that I should help my community. It's my duty," the teenage activist added.
The 17-year-old will receive the peace prize in Oslo with the Indian campaigner Kailash Satyarthi, 60, who has fought for 35 years to free thousands of children from virtual slave labour.
Speaking about her co-recipient Satyarthi, Malala said it was an honour to win the prize alongside the Indian child rights activist.
Malala has already received a host of awards, standing ovations and plaudits from the United Nations to Buckingham Palace. But on the eve of the ceremony she said she was far from ready to rest on her laurels.
Ceremony
Legendary Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will be performing at the awards ceremony and concert to be held in Oslo and one of the two songs that the singer will be performing at the concert is part of the Express Media Group’s nationwide highly-interactive campaign called Aao Parhao – Jo Seekha hai woh sab ko seekhao/ Come Teach – Teach all that you have learnt.
For the first time ever the blood-soaked school uniform she wore when she was shot near her home in the Swat Valley in October 2012 will also go on display in an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo this week.
At her invitation, five other teenage activists will join her in Oslo from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, including Shazia Ramzan, 16, and Kainat Riaz, 17, who were also shot during the Taliban attack on Malala, and 17-year-old Amina Yusuf, a girls' education activist from northern Nigeria where the terror group Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls during a raid in April 2014.
Nobel winners receive $1.1 million, which is shared in the case of joint wins.
With additional input from AFP
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@Aschraful Makhlooq: Looks like your barbarian friends have gone to another low.Killing over 100 innocent kids.Why don't you show some courage and go face them as Malala did?
@Aschraful Makhlooq: So keeping girls uneducated and repressed by people like you is the real and true teaching of Islam!!Would you enlighten us as to what have you done for female education,oh,i forgot,you are against it,and doing it in the name of Islam.Would you take person responsibility to protect Malala from Taliban?.But Taliban are for you role models and buddies,and you would personally deliver her to them.And she doesn't have to follow your orders to thank or curse anybody.I am sure she knows who and how to thank somebody.
@Sofia Saeed Akbar: Please enlighten that why Malala didn't say any thanksgiving words for army which helped Malala and gave her its best treatment after shooting and provided her all possible assistance in treatment and transportation for shifting to CMH?And as far your these words are concerned,Would you explain why you as a Pakistni would allow ALL girls in the tribal area of Pakistani for the survival of their education against the brutal and cruel rituals regarding girls & womens education don’t you think this is not about Malala its about a country & its citizens that allows these henious acts to persists. Instead of ranting about Malala’s why is this energy used to make sure no daughter of Pakistn living iina city or a tribal area is ever harmed again!" then the answer is simple,id est,far from and lack of the true and real teachings of Islam regarding women's education.....
@Aschraful Makhlooq: other girls?for example?
:@Aschraful Makhloog:: Would you explain why you as a Pakistni would allow ALL girls in the tribal area of Pakistani for the survival of their education against the brutal and cruel rituals regarding girls & womens education don't you think this is not about Malala its about a country & its citizens that allows these henious acts to persists. Instead of ranting about Malala's why is this energy used to make sure no daughter of Pakistn living iina city or a tribal area is ever harmed again!
@Sofia Saeed Akbar: Would you like to explain the other girls' struggle and efforts besides Malala in the tribal areas of Pakistan for the survival of their education against the brutal and cruel rituals regarding girls' and women's education till now?????
@Aschraful Makhlooq its so refreshing to know that people like you & those that support your tainted viewpoint exist in a country that shoots young girls, then think she is a pawn of the WEST, put your self in Malala's shoes get a friend to put a bullet in you feel the pain during the process of recovery and then utter the words ... Nobel Prize for what?In the other words just for nothing…..
Malala would get my vote if she ran for PM 20 years from now.
What an innocent and naive girl who believes Pakistanis will accept her.Why you want to come to a broken and sinking ship.? Your talent and services are better spent in countries that will appreciate your work.No use coming down to a ungrateful nation-a country of misogynist chauvinists and with people having false bravados and false sense of superiority.They have better role models like Osama,TTP warriors,Zaid Hamid and many of his ilk.
And please.!please !your money is needed in many 3rd world countries than in a developed country like Pakistan.You are mistaken you can win hearts with money.There are none there anyway. Forget the idea of becoming PM.iIt will be another martial law in the next few years.You will die with a broken heart if you became too much emotionally attached with your former country.Remember Abdus-salaam.?!You will have a much fulfilling life elsewhere.
@sharabi - "The Day when Obama got Nobel price the day Nobel for Peace lost its value."
Its lost its significance long back, when Gandhi was never considered for the Nobel Prize for peace in 1948...
@Iron hand: Stand up where in KPK or Fata? No, in UK. There anybody can stand against TTP.
All I say is that; she had been through terrible and worse, but all this doesn't deserve a PEACE award and that too the highest cadre in the world.
There are many actual Malala's out there in Pakistan and around the world. There are those who talk about things, there are those who make things happen and those who wonder what happened. We should all highlight those unnamed social workers who have dedicated thier lives. We need action not words.
After reading the comments by Pakistanis, this is what comes to my mind "Malala, right girl in a wrong country !!!"
I think she should take a short cut to becoming PM via family ties - there are a couple of eligible bachelors who are aiming for PM position. Bilawal and Imran come to mind.
In any other country, Malala would be adulated as a living legend. But not in Pakistan. Some of the comments posted here speak of the rot that has set in after decades of radicalization. Pakistan doesn't deserve Malala. The world does.
That would be a good day for Pakistan. But very unlikely. Clearly, the family sympathies are with ANP and PPP (and vice versa, apparently).
To know the courage and achievements of Malala, you should have been in Swat at the time of insurgency. By setting in drawing rooms gives no right to pass a judgment or question her bravery.
Reading some of the comments is clear why Pakistan has a terrible international reputation - and has a long way to go before that changes. This young women isn't being rewarded for being shot - she's being rewarded for standing up for women's right to education before/after she was shot. I suppose those with knuckledragger mentality just don't get it.
There are so many girls here in Pakistan doing work hard for girls education but no one support them. But why Malala?
@Aschraful Makhlooq: She has earned the Nobel prize for having the courage to stand up to the brainwashed cultists who threaten civilized people everywhere with their barbarity and depravity.
Its not that we dont need her, we just dont deserve her.
She should also make that Indian guy who is getting nobel prize with her, future President, when she is PM...
I am sorry but we don't need another Western Puppet thank you very much indeed!
The laws of all the country says that the life of teenagers can not be put to rsik by parents.Incase of malala, this is what her father did by puting her in trouble. But since they acted on the request from western media, the crime was ovelooked and the culprit father was regarded as side hero.....
The Day when Obama got Nobel price the day Nobel for Peace lost its value. It is just like as giving a Nobel for science to a Jahil instead of Scientist/Engineer. Good for you Malala
Let Malala dream the teenagers dream if not fully the teanagers life, she has managed to draw the line in the sand and let her find her own way and destiny in this vast world. Her inspiration is education which gave her the courage which eventualy will lead her to power one day.
Rex Minor
You can still serve your country without coming into power. It's all about your intentions at the end of the day. Are you doing it to get attention and want the world to praise you? Or are you genuinely concerned and want to improve the state of Pakistan's educational system? I don't see how she can fulfill her goal only by becoming a Prime Minister. It's not like our recent ex-PMs have done wonders for the country that might have set precedence for her to believe that being in power is the solution to all the problems.
If you think you have the spark to become PM. Then urgently contact us. We can arrange TTP gunmen to shoot you in the hand, leg, shoulder or even the head. But that can be fatal. Each PM Bullet costs 5000 Rupees.
You can still serve your country without coming into power. It's all about your intentions at the end of the day. Are you doing it to get attention? Or are you genuinely concerned and want to improve the state of Pakistan's educational system? I don't see how she can fulfill her goal only by becoming a Prime Minister. It's not like our recent ex-PMs have done wonders for the country that might have set precedence for her to believe that being in power is the solution to all the problems.
@Milind: Spot on. Every thing is over shadowed by her death. Every thing is vanished as if her government was the best and the President did not break the parliament due to corruption charges on her. Everyone forget that.
This seems to be the problem with the folks from our subcontinent... We form our opinions & judgments of political figures based on the last big /event action in the life of the politician while missing out the complete picture or all actions preceding the last.
Thus Benazir Bhutto is now a martyr because she died at the hands of the Taliban, while all her misdeeds are brushed under the carpet.
Similarly Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi are canonized as martyrs, by their supporters here their short-sighted and self-serving role in creation of the Khalistan movement or sponsoring LTTE notwithstanding...
I was slapped by Taliban, can i become your CM please?
As if.we did not know about west's malafide intentions behind marketing Malala on enormous scale? We have far bigger heroes than malala here, but none got int'l recognition.
Malala o Malala, hope you grow up as a wise Pakistani, and not a puppet leader. Haven't seen much of a leadership in u anyway. Murad of PTI is far more capable than her, if being a good debater/speaker is the reason to become PM.
Please don't do that. You are far better than that.
we know how pm serve the international agenda!
Malala you have your own identity, please don't follow BB as she could not do anything tangible for the people of this country especially women, despite possessing the qualities and abilities but only heard stories of her bad governance, corruption scandals and so on.
Malala as PM!! Allah na Kare!!!!!!!
So this was the whole game plan
Excuse me, she didn't offer herself to get shot, she was involuntarily shot, while going to school like countless others. If somebody had to deal with her, she would have been dealt with well and good, she was supposed to survive. Like we say in Pk, its all but TOPI DRAMA on a global level.
So this is what modern day colonialism would look like a few years down the road.
Well.......she has my vote.
Malala we are proudof u for ur braveness and ur straitghtfarwardness in front of whole world , plz keep it up our parayers , support are with u . You are encouraging factor in front of all girls amd women of the pakistan.
A very proud day for Pakistan. I wish we all had the courage of this young girl. Congratulations Malala, Pakistan loves you.
Nobel Prize for what?In the other words just for nothing.....
Congratulation to Malala!