Pakistani schoolgirl wins peace prize

A 15-year-old schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban will be honoured for her courage and determination.

Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai has been announced as the recipient of the 2012 Tipperary International Peace Award.

The education activist was attacked by Taliban gunmen last October after she campaigned for girls to go to school without fear in part of the country where the Taliban had once imposed strict Sharia law.

The Tipperary Peace Convention said it was recognising Malala’s courage, determination and perseverance, along with the impact she has had on so many people across the world.

Marking World Day of Peace, Peace Convention secretary Martin Quinn said: “Malala’s courage has proved to be an inspiration around the globe.

“The right to education is denied to 61 million children of primary school agearound the world and the hopes of these children are represented by the courage,determination and by the voice of Malala Yousafzai.

“The Taliban tried and failed to silence her and have instead amplified hervoice. Though only a child herself she has now become perhaps the world’s mostadmired children’s-rights advocate.

“Her campaign to secure access to education for girls in certain regions inPakistan has also served to highlight broader concerns such as the health andsafety of the developing world’s children, women’s rights and the fight againstextremism,” said Mr Quinn.

Malala, from the town of Mingora in the Swat district of Pakistan, was hit justabove her left eye by a bullet which grazed the edge of her brain. She was airlifted to Britain and treated at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, visited her.