Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan to a Pashtun, Sunni Muslim family. Her father was a devoted educator, and came to run a number of schools in the area. Inspired by his example, as well as by important figures like Benazir Bhutto, Malala became an advocate for girls' education at an early age, writing a blog for the BBC at the age of 11. Within a year, Malala was the subject of a documentary by the New York Times, and earned a nomination for the International Children's Peace Prize.
Malala was catapulted into the international stage in October 2012, when she was shot in the eye by a member of the Taliban while on her school bus. She...
