The Express Tribune
Malala Yousafzai vowed on Wednesday to struggle for every child’s right to go to school as she became the youngest ever Nobel laureate, sharing the Peace Prize with Indian campaigner Kailash Satyarthi.
“I will continue this fight until I see every child in school,” the 17-year-old schoolgirl told an audience in Oslo City Hall after receiving the award.
Malala 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.
In a speech peppered with self-deprecating humour, she used the award ceremony to call not just for education but also for fairness and peace.
“The so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don’t. Why is it that countries which we call ‘strong’ are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace?
“Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult?”
Malala, who described herself as the “first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers,” triggered applause and also frequent outbursts of laughter during her speech. But the underlying message was that a world that may soon be able to send a person to Mars still allows millions to suffer from “the very old problems of hunger, poverty, injustice and conflicts”.
Moments after Malala received the prize, a man carrying a Mexican flag walked towards her, but was caught by security. The motives of the man, who was later identified as a student and asylum seeker from Mexico, were unknown.
The man was later arrested and the Norwegian police apologised for the ‘security breach’ at the ceremony. “It’s a breach in security for which we apologise,” Oslo police Chief John Fredriksen told reporters. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
The man waved the flag in front of Malala and Satyarthi as the Nobel laureates received their prize to rapturous applause. Members of the Norwegian royal family and several members of the government, including Prime Minister Erna Solberg, were within reach of the flag-carrying man.
Before the ceremony, Malala and Satyarthi met with 7,000 Norwegian children aged between six and 14 in the heart of Oslo.
“You have given me so much energy,” Malala said. “You might not know but there are so many girls who cannot go to school, there are so many boys who cannot go to school,” she said. “They have never dreamed of any iPad, any PlayStation, any Xbox. The only thing that they dream of is a school, is a book and is a pen.”
Satyarthi, 60, was recognised by the Nobel committee for a 35-year battle to free children from virtual slave labour. Satyarthi is credited with saving around 80,000 children from slave labour sometimes in violent confrontations.
“I’ve lost two of my colleagues,” Satyarthi said after receiving the prize. “Carrying the dead body of a colleague who is fighting for the protection of children is something I’ll never forget, even as I sit here to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Satyarthi, who kept a modest profile in Oslo and even conceded to being overshadowed by Malala surrounded by admirers. He called for more resources to be put in for educating children around the world. “I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global military expenditure is enough to bring all of our children into classrooms,” he said. “I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be… stronger than the quest for freedom.”
The pairing of Malala and Satyarthi had the extra symbolism of linking neighbouring countries that have been in conflict for decades.
After she was named as the winner, Malala said she wanted both states’ prime ministers to attend the prize-giving ceremony in Oslo. Although the leaders of the two South Asian archenemies were not present in Oslo on Wednesday, Malala expressed optimism for her region.
“I am… glad that we can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani can be united in peace and together work for children’s rights,” she said.
Satyarthi’s organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Movement to Save Childhood) prides itself on liberating more than 80,000 children from bonded labour in factories and workshops across India and has networks of activists in more than 100 countries.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) there are about 168 million child labourers around the world.
Arriving in Norway with friends and young activists from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, Malala will open an exhibit in Oslo where her blood stained dress, worn when her school bus was attacked, was put on display.
According to analysts, this year’s award could help the Norwegian Nobel Committee repair its reputation, damaged by controversial awards in recent years to the European Union and US President Barack Obama.
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