Malala Yousafzai wins EU’s Sakharov human rights prize [October 10 2013]
Pakistani school girl and campaigner MalalaYousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, won the EUs Sakharov human rights prize today.
The 16-year-old girl activist was shot a year ago because of the campaign for better rights of the girls.
The Sakharov Prize for free speech is awarded by the European Parliament annually in the memory of Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.
US whistleblower Edward Snowden had been a contender for this prize. The 50,000 euro prize is considered Europes top human rights award.
Malala become prominent in 2009 when she wrote a blog for the BBC Urdu service about her life under the Taliban rule and the lack of education for girls in her area.
She received a standing ovation in July year 2013 in an address to the United Nations General Assembly, in which she vowed that she would never be silenced.
(pakistan today)