OSLO: “I am not the lone voice, I am the voice of 66 million girls deprived of their rights,” thundered Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teanager, after being conferred the Nobel Peace Prize at an impressive ceremony here on Wednesday.
“I will continue this fight until I see every child in school,” she told an audience in Oslo City Hall after receiving the award.
“Why is it that countries that are strong are powerful in creating wars but weak in creating peace? Why is it that making tanks is easier but building schools is hard?” she asked.
Malala called upon the world leaders to ‘unite and make education their top priority’.
She said let this be the last time that a boy or a girl spends their childhood at a factory.
Lauding the endeavours of Kailash Satyarthi, with whom Malala shares the Nobel Peace Prize, she said now India and Pakistan can work together for the cause of children’s rights.
Earlier, Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban for refusing to quit school, and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi received their Nobel Peace Prizes 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.