In recognition: Malala Yousufzai wins international peace award

Teenage activist wins ‘2012 Tipperary International Peace Award’.

LONDON:

Malala Yousafzai has been awarded the “2012 Tipperary International Peace Award” for her courage to raise her voice for female education.

The other nominees for the award included US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President of Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi, former Kenyan journalist John Githongo and the Pax Christi International, the Catholic human rights and peace organisation. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was also awarded the Tipperary Peace Award in 2007

Earlier, Malala’s father had been given a diplomatic role in Britain while his teenage daughter recovers from her injuries, according to reports.

The Pakistani government announced that Ziauddin Yousafzai will become the country’s education attache at the consulate in Birmingham, said the reports. Yousafzai will initially undertake the role for three years, but could get a two-year extension.

Fifteen-year-old Malala is recovering at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where she was brought from Pakistan on October 15. She was shot on her school bus in Swat in October by Taliban gunmen for the “crime” of promoting girls’ education, but survived the murder attempt. The peace activist first rose to prominence aged just 11 with a blog for the BBC Urdu service in 2009 in which she described life in Swat during the bloody rule of the Taliban.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2013.