Cambridge, Massachusetts (UK), November 2: Harvard University has decided to honour Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai for her work in promoting girls’ education. Harvard’s Kennedy School gave an official statement in this regard, saying Yousafzai will be awarded the 2018 Gleitsman Award during a ceremony on December 6. The USD 125,000 worth award is given to anyone who has contributed to improving the quality of life around the world. Yousafzai has been chosen for the award for her courageous leadership of a global movement to equip girls with 12 years of free, quality, and safe education.
“Malala speaks powerfully to the strength and perseverance of women and girls who are oppressed,” said David Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Center for Public Leadership. “Her remarkable story has inspired girls—and boys as well—to follow in her footsteps and has activated a generation of practitioners and legislators who are fighting for equality in their own communities.”
Extraordinary since the beginning
Yousafzai’s crusade for girls’ education began at the age of 11, when she blogged anonymously for the BBC about her experience growing up in Taliban-controlled Pakistan. Four years later, firmly established as a public figure in the fight for fair education, she was targeted for assassination by the Taliban. Following the assassination attempt, Yousafzai spent months recovering in the UK, garnering international support from human rights organizations and governments around the world.
Less than a year after the attempt on her life, she was inspired to launch the Malala Fund with her father; and at 17, she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to ensure that girls who are out of school.
The Award
Now 20, Yousafzai is a student at Oxford University in England, where she is pursuing a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. She continues to travel around the world to meet girls and advocate for those fighting poverty, war, child marriage, and gender discrimination to go to school. A major role model for her was the former prime minister of Pakistan, the late Benazir Bhutto, who graduated from Harvard College. Several of Bhutto’s classmates will be on hand to welcome Yousafzai to the Harvard campus.
“Alan Gleitsman, whose philanthropy made this award possible, believed in individuals whose vision inspired others to confront injustice,” Gergen continued. “He was an ardent supporter of Harvard Kennedy School’s efforts to cultivate the world’s youngest changemakers and would be so pleased by today’s announcement.”
