Malala hopes to be PM
Malala hopes to be PM
Receives Nobel Prize with Kailash Satyarthi
Malala hopes to pursue a career in politics. She may even aspire to be prime minister of Pakistan once she has completed her studies in the UK.
"If I can serve my country best through politics and through becoming a prime minister then I would definitely choose that," Malala told BBC HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur shortly before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo yesterday.
Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan has been jointly awarded the prize with Kailash Satyarthi of India for risking their lives to fight for children's rights.
Malala said she had been inspired by Benazir Bhutto - a woman who twice served as Pakistani prime minister before her murder in 2007.
"I want to serve my country and my dream is that my country becomes a developed country and I see every child get an education," she said.
The 17-year-old Malala, the youngest ever Nobel winner, and Satyarthi, age 60, collected the award at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital to a standing ovation.
Saying that all children have a right to childhood and education instead of forced labor, Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said "this world conscience can find no better expression" than through this year's winners.
In his speech to the gathering, Jagland related how Malala was shot by Taliban gunmen two years ago and said Islamic extremist groups dislike of knowledge because it is a condition for freedom.
"Attendance at school, especially by girls, deprives such forces from power," he said.
He mentioned Satyarthi's vision of ending child labor and how he abandoned a career as an electrical engineer in 1980 to fight for that vision, reports AP.
By honoring this year's winners, the Norwegian Nobel Committee linked the peace award to conflicts between world religions and neighboring nuclear powers as well as drawing attention to children's rights.
The other awards - in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature - are set to be presented in Stockholm later yesterday. The ceremonies are always held on Dec 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.