Malala Yousafzai Biography

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997 in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. She is of Pashtun heritage, a tribal ethnicity found across Afghanistan and Pakistan. Religiously, Pashtuns are Muslim, culturally, they adhere to a moral and ethical code known as Pashtunwali.

Since the arrival of European traders in the 17^th Century, the Pashtun way of life has frequently been tested, first, by British rule of the region and then by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan have also faced the domestic pressures of secularization and modernization as well as an increased federal influence at odds with parochial governance of tribal traditions. In recent decades, corruption and socio-economic challenges in both countries have resulted in political volatility and frequent violent coups. All of these forces have conspired to leave many Pashtuns fiercely protective of their traditional way of life.

In response to these tensions, Pashtun students educated in Islamic schools took control of several Afghan provinces in 1994. These Taliban, as they became known, maintained that the widespread suffering endemic to the region was due to a societal failure to adhere to the moral code of Islam. By 1996, the Taliban secured power in Afghanistan with many Pakistani Pashtuns supporting them. The Taliban became internationally infamous for their violent intolerance of Western influences and their brutal punishment of any transgressions against their radical interpretation of Islamic law.

The Taliban were excessively harsh in their treatment of women, despite neither the Quran nor Pashtunwali supporting such subjugation of women. Under the Taliban, women were, for example, forbidden to leave their houses without a male chaperone. They were forbidden to work, show their skin in public, or speak in public. Girls were also forbidden from going to school.

The Taliban maintained control of Afghanistan until the fateful events of September 11, 2001 caused American, British, and coalition forces to attack Afghanistan and rout the Taliban. Beaten but not defeated, the Taliban fled to mountainous, tribal regions of Pakistan. Continued political discord and economic distress in Pakistan would prove to be fertile ground for a renewal of Islamist militancy. A number of such insurgent groups eventually coalesced into the Pakistan Taliban whose radical interpretation of Islamic law and subjugation of women mimicked that of the Afghan Taliban. They, too, soon began exercising violent control of substantial swaths of Pakistan and destroying secular schools.

Malala’s father was a teacher who had opened his own school and was publicly critical of the Taliban. When the Taliban presence reached the Swat Valley, his life was in jeopardy, but he remained outspoken. Malala followed her father’s lead, attending meetings with him and boldly voicing her defense of girls’ education. At this time Malala also began writing a blog organized through a BBC radio station. Using a pseudonym to protect her identity, she wrote about what it was like for an eleven-year-old girl to live under the Taliban and to be deprived of education.

Malala followed her father’s lead, attending meetings with him and boldly voicing her defense of girls’ education.

Meanwhile, the Taliban insurgency threatened the capital city of Islamabad. International alarm concerning potential Taliban access to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal resulted in U.S. support of a counterinsurgency led by the Pakistan Army. As war erupted, Malala and her family were forced to flee their home. After two and half months, the army regained control of the region and the Yousafzais returned to their home in the war-torn valley.

Malala began receiving recognition for her activism on behalf of girls’ education. She was nominated by Desmond Tutu for the International Children’s Peace Prize and won Pakistan’s first National Peace Prize. However, the Taliban, despite being uprooted, still posed a terrorist threat. On October 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman tracked down her school bus and shot the young fifteen-year-old Malala in the head. Amazingly, she survived the shooting and was taken to Birmingham, England for medical care and rehabilitation as the events drew international attention. 

The following year she and her father founded the Malala Fund, an international, non-profit organization supporting girls’ education. She was also invited to speak at the United Nations on her sixteenth birthday and the next year Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At 17 years, she was the youngest laureate to receive the Nobel Prize in any field. Two years later she was named the youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace.

Malalai Nursing the Wounded by Steve Simon, oil on wood panel

Malala was named after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous heroine of Pashtun folklore. During the Battle of Maiwand, which was a significant battle of the Second Anglo-Afghan War, it is said Malalai volunteered to tend to the wounded. The British had gained the upper hand against the Afghans who fought to defend their country from British occupation. In the chaos, Malalai saw the Afghan flag-bearer get shot and killed. In an act of martial valor out of step with rigid gender roles, she took up the challenge and rallied the troops behind her. Sadly, she would also suffer the same fate as the previous flag-bearer, but the extraordinary spectacle energized and emboldened the Afghan forces who went on to be victorious in this historic battle.

Malalai the Flag-Bearer by Steve Simon, oil on wood panel