Malala, who took bullet for going to school, celebrates her degree from Oxford University
Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner and advocate of education for girls has completed her graduation from Oxford University.
Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner who once took a bullet for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan, was over the moon on Friday after completing her degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Britain's prestigious Oxford University.
Malala, 22, who attended Oxford's Lady Margaret Hall college, took to social media to share two pictures that show her celebrating the milestone with her family.
"Hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at Oxford," she said in the tweet, accompanied by two pictures - one showing her sitting with her family in front of a cake that says: 'Happy Graduation Malala', and the other in which she is covered with cake smiling for the camera.
In the tweet, the famed human rights activist also revealed her plans for the immediate future - Netflix, reading and sleeping.
"I don't know what's ahead. For now, it will be Netflix, reading and sleep," she wrote.
At the age of 17, Malala became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her education advocacy in 2014 when she shared the coveted honour with India's social activist Kailash Satyarthi. She was also the first Pashtun, the first Pakistani receive the coveted honour. In her acceptance speech for the Noble Prize, she said
“I tell my story not because it is unique but because it isn’t. It is the story of many other girls.”
In 2008, Malala started writing about the rising influence of Taliban in Pakistan for BBC Urdu, under a pseudonym. Malala gained worldwide recognition when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in December 2012 for campaigning for female education in the Swat Valley in northeastern Pakistan.
At 15, Malala had become the extremist group's target after publicly speaking about girls having the right to education, and was attacked on her way home from school. Severely wounded, she was airlifted from one military hospital in Pakistan to another and later flown to the UK for treatment.
After the attack, the Taliban released a statement saying that they would target Malala again if she survived.
Recovering from her injuries in a hospital in Birmingham a year later, Malala decided to continue fighting for girls' education and started the Malala Fund along with her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, in 2013. Through the Fund and its network of 'education champions,' Malala has been reaching out to girls around the world, sharing their stories and helping them fight oppression.
She has started a school for Syrian refugee girls, has actively spoken about women’s right to education, has been listed on Time’s list of the most influential people around the world, and has been the subject of a movie.
She also co-wrote her autobiography 'I am Malala' with Christina Lamb, detailing her story of standing up for girl's education.
Her birthday, July 12 is recognised as Malala Day around the world.
(Background information has been added to this PTI copy to give it more context.)
