Education is for everyone and everywhere around the world. It is a fundamental human right. It is somehow being limited to only a certain class of people who enjoy special privileges being members of developed countries. Malala Yousafzai in her speech highlights the need for compulsory quality education for children of all countries of the world to bring about lasting peace, justice and development.
Malala won the Noble Peace Prize in 2014. She was shot in the head in by members of the Taliban group in Pakistan for raising her voice against the violent extremists who had banned education for girls destroyed many schools and killed thousands of innocent people in the country. She delivered a very a powerful message for the Rights of Children and compulsory education through her speech while receiving the Noble Peace Prize.
Malala thanked the Almighty and her parents for everything she had achieved thus far in her life before she began her speech. In the beginning note, she addressed how she was proud to be the first 14-year-old and the first Pakistani Phastoon to receive such an honour as the Noble Peace Prize.
She said the award was dedicated to the ‘forgotten children’ who want education and who want to bring about change in the world. While she addressed the Norwegian Noble Committee, the Royal Highness and everyone seated at the hall Malala had a message for a wider global audience. Being a child herself most of her speech was directed towards the children of this generation who Malala believes are the strongest agents of world peace and fight for education. She said she stands and raises her voice on behalf of all the children in the world who face injustice, violence and deprivation.
Malala recalls the thirst for education and learning among her friends in Pakistan. She recalls how the arrival of the Taliban in her village Swat had stained their dreams for learning and turned into a nightmare. She recalls how the terrorists had destroyed schools, flogged women, banned education for girls and killed innocent people. However, she says the bullets and ideas of the Taliban were too weak to get in the way of her fight for the right to education for children across the world. Reminding the people of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad Malala said, Islam is a religion that preaches peace and forbids killing. She reminds the world and the members of that terrorist group who misinterpret Islam, that the Holy Quran asks the people to read.
Malala questions the people of the world as to why girls should not be educated. Malala reminds the people of the atrocities of violence faced by the people Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria and other developing and underdeveloped countries of the world. She reminds the children and the world leaders that the fight against social taboo and injustice must go. In countries like India Pakistan and many others, the career and potential of brilliant girls are destroyed by Child marriage and child labour Malala tells. She says she represents the 66 million girls in the collective fight for their rights. She recalls being shot by the Taliban and she recalls how before the incident she and her girlfriends had struggled to get an education as the terrorist killed girls and destroyed schools. Malala also says how many of her friends’ like her never gave up on education despite such cruel adversities She wants all the children of the world to raise their voices as she did rather than remaining silent against injustice.
To support the education for girls she declares to donate all the money from the Noble Prize fund to her organization named Malala Fund. Malala tells that she will use the money to build schools in Pakistan and her village of Swat and Sangla so that the children could be educated and learn to raise their voice for justice.
Malala also speaks directly to the world leaders questioning their roles in promoting education for all children of the world. She questions leaders of powerful nations on behalf of every child in the world as to why they could start a war but not establish peace. She asks why the leaders supplied guns instead of books to the children in many countries and why it was so easy for them to build tanks rather than schools. She demands that there must be leaps to establish quality education for all, not only up to the primary level but to the secondary level as well. She suggests the world leaders that this should be the target of the Sustainable Development Goal that was to be declared in 2015 by the UN. If humans could go to the moon, they can go to Mars too. Similarly, if the world leaders could make primary education compulsory they can prioritize secondary education for all too she said.
Towards the end of her speech, Malala tells her fellow children of this the generation that the children must contribute to the fight for education in such a way that there be no more empty classrooms and wasted potential, that this should be the victory and end of the war against injustice.
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