Malala spoke to BBC HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur in Oslo as she prepares to receive Nobel Peace Prize today. The 17-year-old becomes the youngest Nobel laureate, adding yet another distinction to a long list.
“I want to serve my country and my dream is that my country becomes a developed country and I see every child get an education,” Malala said.
“If I can serve my country best through politics and through becoming a prime minister then I would definitely choose that,” she added.
Malala was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she travelled on a school bus in response to her campaign for girls’ education. Although her injuries almost killed her, she recovered after being flown for extensive surgery in Birmingham, central England. She has been based in England with her family ever since, continuing both her education and activism.
Commenting on her campaign for education, Malala said she had wished from the beginning to see children going to school.
“Now this peace prize is very important for me and it has really given me more hope, more courage, and I feel stronger than before because I see many people are with me,” she said.
“There are more responsibilities but I have also put responsibilities on myself. I feel I am answerable to God and to myself and that I should help my community. It’s my duty,” the teenage activist added.
The 17-year-old will receive the peace prize in Oslo with the Indian campaigner Kailash Satyarthi, 60, who has fought for 35 years to free thousands of children from virtual slave labour.
Speaking about her co-recipient Satyarthi, Malala said it was an honour to win the prize alongside the Indian child rights activist.
Malala has already received a host of awards, standing ovations and plaudits from the United Nations to Buckingham Palace. But on the eve of the ceremony she said she was far from ready to rest on her laurels.
Ceremony
Legendary Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will be performing at the awards ceremony and concert to be held in Oslo and one of the two songs that the singer will be performing at the concert is part of the Express Media Group’s nationwide highly-interactive campaign called Aao Parhao – Jo Seekha hai woh sab ko seekhao/ Come Teach – Teach all that you have learnt.
For the first time ever the blood-soaked school uniform she wore when she was shot near her home in the Swat Valley in October 2012 will also go on display in an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo this week.
At her invitation, five other teenage activists will join her in Oslo from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, including Shazia Ramzan, 16, and Kainat Riaz, 17, who were also shot during the Taliban attack on Malala, and 17-year-old Amina Yusuf, a girls’ education activist from northern Nigeria where the terror group Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls during a raid in April 2014.
Nobel winners receive $1.1 million, which is shared in the case of joint wins.
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