OSLO // Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever Nobel laureate on Wednesday when she received the Peace Prize in Oslo, sharing it with Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi.
“A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what the world needs – more unity. Fraternity between the nations!” said Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee.
Malala, 17, who received the prestigious award in Oslo City Hall, became a global icon after she was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in October 2012 for insisting that girls had a right to an education.
“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.”
Mr Satyarthi, 60, was credited with saving around 80,000 children from slave labour sometimes in violent confrontations over the course of 35 years.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters
