Age, Biography, and Wiki
Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. She is a renowned Pakistani education activist and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. Malala's early life was marked by her activism against the Taliban's efforts to ban girls' education in Pakistan. She rose to prominence after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012, which further amplified her global advocacy for girls' education and peace.
| Occupation | Activist |
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| Date of Birth | 12 July 1997 |
| Age | 28 Years |
| Birth Place | Mingora, Swat, Pakistan |
| Horoscope | Cancer |
| Country | Pakistan |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Malala's height and weight are not widely publicized, she is known for her resilience and determination rather than her physical appearance.
On 9 October 2012, a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai as she rode home on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Yousafzai was 15 years old at the time. According to reports, a masked gunman shouted: "Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all." Upon being identified, Yousafzai was shot with one bullet, which travelled 18 in from the side of her left eye, through her neck and landed in her shoulder. Two other girls were also wounded in the shooting: Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, both of whom were stable enough following the shooting to speak to reporters and provide details of the attack.
After the shooting, Yousafzai was airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar, where doctors were forced to operate after swelling developed in the left portion of her brain, which had been damaged by the bullet when it passed through her head. After a five-hour operation, doctors successfully removed the bullet, which had lodged in her shoulder near her spinal cord. The day following the attack, doctors performed a decompressive craniectomy, in which part of her skull was removed to allow room for swelling.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Malala has kept her personal life quite private, and there is no publicly known information about her dating or relationship status. Her focus remains on her educational activism and advocacy work.
Considering Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Barack Obama, and Benazir Bhutto as her role models, she was also inspired by her father's thoughts and humanitarian work. In early 2009, when she was 11, she wrote a blog under her pseudonym Gul Makai for the BBC Urdu to detail her life during the Taliban's occupation of Swat. The following summer, journalist Adam B. Ellick made a New York Times documentary about her life as the Pakistan Armed Forces launched Operation Rah-e-Rast against the militants in Swat. In 2011, she received Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize. She interned for the Swat Relief Initiative, a foundation founded by Zebunisa Jilani, a princess of the Royal House of Swat which supports schools and clinics. She rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by activist Desmond Tutu.
She is the daughter of Ziauddin Yousafzai and Toor Pekai Yousafzai. Her family is Sunni Muslim of Pashtun ethnicity, belonging to the Yusufzai tribe. She was given her first name Malala (meaning "grief-stricken") after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan. At her house in Mingora, she lived with her two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal, her parents, Ziauddin and Tor Pekai, and two chickens.
Fluent in Pashto, Urdu and English, Yousafzai was educated mostly by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a poet, school owner, and an educational activist himself, running a chain of private schools known as the Khushal Public School. In an interview, she once said that she aspired to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead. Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, allowing her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.
Inspired by the twice-elected, assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Yousafzai started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" she asked in a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region. In 2009, she began as a trainee and was then a peer educator in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's Open Minds Pakistan youth programme, which worked in the region's schools to help students engage in constructive discussion on social issues through journalism, public debate and dialogue.
In late 2008, Aamer Ahmed Khan of the BBC Urdu website and his colleagues came up with a novel way of covering the Pakistani Taliban's growing influence in Swat. They decided to ask a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life there. Their correspondent in Peshawar, Abdul Hai Kakar, had been in touch with a local school teacher, Ziauddin Yousafzai, but could not find any students willing to report, as their families considered it too dangerous. Finally, Yousafzai suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala. At the time, Pakistani Taliban militants led by Maulana Fazlullah were taking over the Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls' education, and women from going shopping. Bodies of beheaded policemen were being displayed in town squares. At first, a girl named Aisha from her father's school agreed to write a diary, but her parents stopped her from doing it because they feared Taliban reprisals. The only alternative was Yousafzai, who was four years younger and in seventh grade at the time. "We had been covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn't know much about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban", said Mirza Waheed, former editor of BBC Urdu. Because they were concerned for Yousafzai's safety, the BBC editors insisted she use a pseudonym. Her blog was published under the byline "Gul Makai" ("cornflower" in Pashto), a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale.
"I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 out of 27 pupils attended the class because the number decreased because of the Pakistani Taliban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict."
In February 2009, girls' schools were still closed. In solidarity, private schools for boys had decided not to open until 9 February, and notices appeared saying so. On 7 February, Yousafzai and her brother returned to their hometown of Mingora, where the streets were deserted, and there was an "eerie silence". She wrote in her blog: "We went to the supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed." Their home had been robbed and their television was stolen.
On 15 February, gunshots were heard in Mingora's streets, but Yousafzai's father reassured her, saying, "Don't be scared—this is firing for peace." Her father had read in the newspaper that the government and militants were going to sign a peace deal the next day. Later that night, when the Taliban announced the peace deal on their FM Radio studio, another round of stronger firing started outside. Yousafzai spoke out against the Pakistani Taliban on the national current affairs show Capital Talk on 18 February. Three days later, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi leader Maulana Fazlulla announced on his FM radio station that he was lifting the ban on women's education, and girls would be allowed to attend school until exams were held on 17 March, but that they had to wear burqas.
After the BBC diary ended, Yousafzai and her father were approached by New York Times reporter Adam B. Ellick about filming a documentary. In May, the Pakistani Army moved into the region to regain control during the Second Battle of Swat (also known as Operation Rah-e-Rast). Mingora was evacuated and Yousafzai's family was displaced and separated. Her father went to Peshawar to protest and lobby for support, while she was sent into the countryside to live with relatives. "I'm really bored because I have no books to read," she is filmed saying in the documentary.
That month, after criticising militants at a press conference, Yousafzai's father received a death threat over the radio by a Pakistani Taliban commander. Yousafzai was deeply inspired in her activism by her father. That summer, for the first time, she committed to becoming a politician and not a doctor, as she had once aspired to be.
The murder attempt received worldwide media coverage and produced an outpouring of sympathy and anger. Protests against the shooting were held in several Pakistani cities the day after the attack, and over 2 million people signed the Right to Education campaign's petition, which led to ratification of the first Right to Education Bill in Pakistan. Pakistani officials offered a 10 million rupee (≈US$105,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers. Responding to concerns about his safety, Yousafzai's father said: "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets."
Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Yousafzai "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity", adding that if she survived, the group would target her again. In the days following the attack, the Pakistani Taliban reiterated its justification, saying Yousafzai had been brainwashed by her father: "We warned him several times to stop his daughter from using dirty language against us, but he didn't listen and forced us to take this extreme step." The Pakistani Taliban also justified its attack as part of religious scripture, stating that the Quran says that "people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed", going on to say that "Sharia says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam".
In 2015, the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) banned her autobiographical book, I Am Malala, at all Pakistani private schools, with the APPSF president Mirza Kashif Ali releasing his own book against her, I Am Not Malala. His book accused Yousafzai of attacking the Pakistan Armed Forces under the pretence of female education, described her father as a "double agent" and "traitor", and denounced the Malala Fund's promotion of secular education. However, Ali pointed out that the APPSF had gone on a national strike when Yousafzai was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban.
In the 2016 action comedy film Zoolander 2, Malala Yousafzai is depicted as dating/marrying the "next hot model" Derek Zoolander Jr. (portrayed by Cyrus Arnold), who earlier had been admiring and reading her various autobiographies. In the 2019 coming-of-age comedy film Booksmart, two main characters Amy and Molly (portrayed by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever), named their code word "Malala", after Yousafzai, and the code means they need the other to do something, no question asked. Yousafzai herself loved the film and approves the reference.
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| Husband | Asser Malik (m. 2021) |
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Net Worth
Malala's net worth is not publicly disclosed, but her influence and impact through the Malala Fund, which she co-founded with her father, are significant. The fund supports education projects in several countries, advocating for quality secondary education for girls.
Social Network
Malala is highly active on social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram, where she engages with her followers, shares her thoughts on education and peace, and updates them on her work through the Malala Fund. Her social media presence is a powerful tool for spreading her message globally.
Following the edict, the Pakistani Taliban destroyed several more local schools. On 24 January 2009, Yousafzai wrote: "Our annual exams are due after the vacations but this will only be possible if the Pakistani Taliban allow girls to go to school. We were told to prepare certain chapters for the exam but I do not feel like studying."
On 25 February, Yousafzai wrote on her blog that she and her classmates "played a lot in class and enjoyed ourselves like we used to before." Attendance at Yousafzai's class was up to 19 of 27 pupils by 1 March, but the Pakistani Taliban were still active in the area. Shelling continued, and relief goods meant for displaced people were looted. Only two days later, Yousafzai wrote that there was a skirmish between the military and Taliban, and the sounds of mortar shells could be heard: "People are again scared that the peace may not last for long. Some people are saying that the peace agreement is not permanent, it is just a break in fighting."
Yousafzai's public profile rose even further when she was awarded Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize two months later in December. On 19 December 2011, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani awarded her the National Peace Award for Youth. At the ceremony, she stated she was not a member of any political party, but hoped to found a national party of her own to promote education. The prime minister directed the authorities to set up an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women at Yousafzai's request, and a secondary school was renamed in her honour. By 2012, she was planning to organise the Malala Education Foundation, which would help poor girls go to school. In 2012, she attended the International Marxist Tendency National Marxist Summer School. In a television interview the same year, she named Barack Obama, Benazir Bhutto and Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan), a Pashtun leader known for his nonviolent Khudai Khidmatgar resistance movement against the British Raj, as inspirations for her activism.
As Yousafzai became more recognised, the dangers facing her increased. Death threats against her were published in newspapers and slipped under her door. On Facebook, where she was an active user, she began to receive threats. Eventually, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said they were "forced" to act. In a meeting held in the summer of 2012, Taliban leaders unanimously agreed to kill her.
American singer Madonna dedicated her song "Human Nature" to Yousafzai at a concert in Los Angeles the day of the attack, and also had a temporary Malala tattoo on her back. American actress Angelina Jolie wrote an article explaining the event to her children and answering questions like "Why did those men think they needed to kill Malala?" Jolie later donated $200,000 to the Malala Fund for girls' education. Former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she compared Yousafzai to Holocaust diarist Anne Frank.
On 15 October 2012, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister, visited Yousafzai while she was in the hospital, and launched a petition in her name and "in support of what Malala fought for". Using the slogan "I am Malala", the petition's main demand was that there be no child left out of school by 2015, with the hope that "girls like Malala everywhere will soon be going to school". Brown said he would hand the petition to President Zardari in Islamabad in November.
Yousafzai has repeatedly condemned the Rohingya persecution in Myanmar. In June 2015, the Malala Fund released a statement in which Yousafzai argues that the Rohingya people deserve "citizenship in the country where they were born and have lived for generations" along with "equal rights and opportunities." She urges world leaders, particularly in Myanmar, to "halt the inhuman persecution of Burma's Muslim minority Rohingya people." In September 2017, speaking in Oxford, Yousafzai said: "This should be a human rights issue. Governments should react to it. People are being displaced, they're facing violence." Yousafzai also posted a statement on Twitter calling for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn the treatment of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Suu Kyi has avoided taking sides in the conflict, or condemning violence against the Rohingya people, leading to widespread criticism.
When Yousafzai was asked about the first presidency of Donald Trump, she said: "Some of the things have really disappointed me, like sexual harassment and the ban on Muslims and racism." She also criticised the Trump administration's proposed budget cuts to education, saying that education is the first step to "eradicating extremism and ending poverty". Throughout the episode, clips are shown of Yousafzai acting as a tour guide for prospective students to her college Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Conspiracy theorists in newspapers and social media alleged that Yousafzai had staged her assassination attempt, or that she was an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Another conspiracy theory alleges that Yousafzai is a Jewish agent.
Yousafzai's memoir I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb, was published in October 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the US and by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK. Fatima Bhutto, reviewing the book for The Guardian called the book "fearless" and stated that "the haters and conspiracy theorists would do well to read this book", though she criticised "the stiff, know-it-all voice of a foreign correspondent" that is interwoven with Yousafzai's. Marie Arana for The Washington Post called the book "riveting" and wrote "It is difficult to imagine a chronicle of a war more moving, apart from perhaps the diary of Anne Frank." Tina Jordan in Entertainment Weekly gave the book a "B+", writing "Malala's bravely eager voice can seem a little thin here, in I Am Malala, likely thanks to her co-writer, but her powerful message remains undiluted."
Yousafzai authored a picture book, Malala's Magic Pencil, which was illustrated by Kerascoët and published on 17 October 2017. By March 2018, The Bookseller reported that the book had over 5,000 sales in the UK. In a review for The Guardian, Imogen Carter describes the book as "enchanting", opining that it "strikes just the right balance" between "heavy-handed" and "heartfelt", and is a "welcome addition to the frustratingly small range of children's books that feature BAME central characters". Rebecca Gurney of The Daily Californian gives the book a grade of 4.5 out of 5, calling it a "beautiful account of a terrifying but inspiring tale" and commenting "Though the story begins with fantasy, it ends starkly grounded in reality."
Education
Malala's pursuit of education has been a cornerstone of her life. Despite facing numerous challenges, she continued her education in the UK after her relocation following the assassination attempt. She attended the Edgbaston High School in Birmingham and later studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
Malala's story is a testament to the power of education and resilience in the face of adversity, inspiring millions around the world to advocate for girls' education and peace.
Malala Yousafzai (, pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."
On 9 October 2012, while on a bus in Swat District after taking an exam, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt targeting her for her activism; the gunman fled the scene. She was struck in the head by a bullet and remained unconscious and in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, but her condition later improved enough for her to be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support. Deutsche Welle reported in January 2013 that she may have become "the most famous teenager in the world". Weeks after the attempted murder, a group of 50 leading Muslim clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her. Governments, human rights organizations and feminist groups subsequently condemned the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. In response, the Taliban further denounced Yousafzai, indicating plans for a possible second assassination attempt which the Taliban felt was justified as a religious obligation. This sparked another international outcry.
After her recovery, Yousafzai became a more prominent activist for the right to education. Based in Birmingham, she co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organisation, with Shiza Shahid. In 2013, she co-authored I Am Malala, an international best seller. In 2013, she received the Sakharov Prize, and in 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi of India. Aged 17 at the time, she was the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. In 2015, she was the subject of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary He Named Me Malala. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 issues of Time magazine featured her as one of the most influential people globally. In 2017 she was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada.
Yousafzai completed her secondary school education at Edgbaston High School, Birmingham in England from 2013 to 2017. From there she won a place at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and undertook three years of study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating in 2020. She returned in 2023 to become the youngest ever Honorary Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford.
On 3 January 2009, her first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog. She hand-wrote notes and passed them to a reporter who scanned and e-mailed them. The blog recorded Yousafzai's thoughts during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations took place, fewer girls show up to school, and finally, her school shut down. That day she wrote:
In Swat, the Pakistani Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. They had already blown up more than 100 girls' schools. The night before the ban took effect was filled with the noise of artillery fire, waking Yousafzai several times. The following day, she also read for the first time excerpts from her blog that were published in a local newspaper.
After boys' schools reopened, the Pakistani Taliban lifted restrictions on girls' primary education, where there was co-education. Girls-only schools were still closed. Yousafzai wrote that only 70 pupils attended out of the 700 who were enrolled.
By early July, refugee camps were filled to capacity. The prime minister made a long-awaited announcement saying it was safe to return to the Swat Valley. The Pakistani military had pushed the Taliban out of the cities and into the countryside. Yousafzai's family reunited, and on 24 July 2009 they headed home. They made one stop first—to meet with a group of other grassroots activists that had been invited to see United States President Barack Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke. Yousafzai pleaded with Holbrooke to intervene in the situation, saying, "Respected ambassador, if you can help us in our education, so please help us." When her family finally returned home, they found it had not been damaged, and her school had sustained only light damage.
In 2011, Yousafzai trained with local girls' empowerment organisation, Aware Girls, run by Gulalai Ismail, whose training included advice on women's rights and empowerment to peacefully oppose radicalisation through education.
In October 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African activist, nominated Yousafzai for the International Children's Peace Prize of the Dutch international children's advocacy group, KidsRights Foundation. She was the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award. The announcement said, "Malala dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to go to school." The award was won by Michaela Mycroft of South Africa.
The day after the shooting, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated that the Taliban gunman who shot Yousafzai had been identified. Police named 23-year-old Atta Ullah Khan, a graduate student in chemistry, as the gunman in the attack. As of 2015, he remained at large, possibly in Afghanistan.
From March 2013 to July 2017, Yousafzai was a pupil at the all-girls Edgbaston High School in Birmingham. In August 2015, she received 6 A*s and 4 As at GCSE level. At A-Level, she studied Geography, History, Mathematics and Religious Studies. Also applying to Durham University, the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics (LSE), Yousafzai was interviewed at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in December 2016 and received a conditional offer of three As in her ALevels; in August 2017, she was accepted to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).
In February 2020, climate change activist Greta Thunberg travelled to Oxford University to meet Yousafzai. On 19 June 2020, Yousafzai said after passing her final examinations that she had completed her PPE degree at Oxford; she graduated with honours.
Yousafzai addressed the United Nations in July 2013, and had an audience with Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace. In September, she spoke at Harvard University, and in October, she met with US President Barack Obama and his family; during that meeting, she confronted him on his use of drone strikes in Pakistan. In December, she addressed the Oxford Union. In July 2014, Yousafzai spoke at the Girl Summit in London. In October 2014, she donated $50,000 to the UNRWA for reconstruction of schools on the Gaza Strip.
On 12 July 2015, her 18th birthday, Yousafzai opened a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees. The school, funded by the not-for-profit Malala Fund, offers education and training to girls aged 14 to 18 years. Yousafzai called on world leaders to invest in "books, not bullets".
On 12 July 2013, Yousafzai's 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. The UN dubbed the event "Malala Day". Yousafzai wore one of Benazir Bhutto's shawls to the UN. It was her first public speech since the attack, leading the first ever Youth Takeover of the UN, with an audience of over 500 young education advocates from around the world.
"The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. I am not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I'm here to speak up for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists."
Yousafzai received several standing ovations. Ban Ki-moon, who also spoke at the session, described her as "our hero". Yousafzai also presented the chamber with "The Education We Want", a Youth Resolution of education demands written by Youth for Youth, in a process co-ordinated by the UN Global Education First Youth Advocacy Group, telling her audience:
On 8 October 2013, Malala, at the age of 16, visited The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an American television programme, her first major late night appearance. She was there as a guest to promote her book, I Am Malala. On the program they discussed her assassination attempt, human rights, and women's education. She left Jon Stewart speechless when she described her thoughts after learning the Pakistani Taliban wanted her dead, saying:
"I started thinking about that, and I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill me. But then I said, 'If he comes, what would you do Malala?' then I would reply to myself, 'Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.' But then I said, 'If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.' Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that 'I even want education for your children as well.' And I will tell him, 'That's what I want to tell you, now do what you want."
On 10 October 2014, Yousafzai was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Having received the prize at the age of 17, Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel laureate. Yousafzai shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India. She is the second Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize after 1979 Physics laureate Abdus Salam.
Adán Cortés, a college student from Mexico City and asylum seeker, interrupted Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in protest for the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping in Mexico, but was quickly taken away by security personnel. Yousafzai later sympathised, and acknowledged that problems are faced by young people all over the world, saying "there are problems in Mexico, there are problems even in America, even here in Norway, and it is really important that children raise their voices".
Yousafzai condemned the Taliban's ban on girls' education beyond 6th grade, and said "the Taliban will continue to make excuses to prevent girls from learning beyond primary school." She said the Taliban "want to erase girls and women from all public life in Afghanistan," and asked "leaders around the world to take collective action to hold the Taliban accountable for violating the human rights of millions of women and girls."
On 7 March 2022, Malala Yousafzai advocated for every woman's right to decide to wear what she likes for herself, from a burqa to a bikini: "Come and talk to us about individual freedom and autonomy, about preventing harm and violence, about education and emancipation. Do not come with your wardrobe notes." According to Yousafzai, "refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying".
Many Pakistanis view her as an "agent of the West", due to her Nobel prize, Oxford education and residence in England; however, Yousafzai is seen as courageous by some Pakistanis. Farman Nawaz argued in Daily Outlook Afghanistan that Yousafzai would have gained more fame in Pakistan if she belonged to the province of Punjab.
On 7 August 2019, following the Indian revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Yousafzai urged the UN to help Kashmiri children go safely back to school in response to the Indian Government's lockdown and communications blackout in the Kashmir valley and expressed her concern about the situation, and appealed to the international community to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir. People in India accused her of spreading the "Pakistani agenda" over the Kashmir conflict, and being selective in condemning human rights abuses, while in Pakistan she was criticised for being late in her response.
A children's edition of the memoir was published in 2014 under the title I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World. According to Publishers Weekly, in 2017 the book had sold almost 2 million copies, and there were 750,000 copies of the children's edition in print.