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Malala Yousufzai, today, is one of Pakistan’s most honored and respected personalities in the international world. However, her fame and fortune did not come all of a sudden and without a cost.
Malala Yousufzai was nominated for the prestigious International Children’s Peace Award in 2013 after she was shot from point-blank range by Taliban for her views on education and women empowerment in Swat. Today, Malala has a Nobel Prize to her name along with a Cambridge scholarship.
Another girl from Swat is on the same track of peace and prosperity. Meet 14-year-old Hira Akbar from the Swat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who has been nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. Hira is one of six children nominated for the same category, out of 200 who were shortlisted from around the world.
“I’ll continue my struggle for the rights of my fellow students in Swat, the [award] nomination has motivated me to strive for children’s rights across the province,” Hira told Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune.
Hira has been nominated auspiciously for her work for children’s rights in Swat. Hailing from the hinterlands, Hira, even at a tender age, works vigorously for the dimensions of education and social security to expand.
The prestigious award is an initiative started by the KidsRights Foundation in Netherlands, which was launched back in 2005 by Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The prize also carries a cash voucher of $133,000 which will then be used to the winner’s best interest in charity and social causes.
Hira’s achievement goes on to prove that it was not just Malala whose achievements were highlighted internationally but other colts are working towards similar exposure and in the long term, a Nobel Prize, which Malala was lucky to win at a very young age. As for Hira, the nation should be extremely proud of her.
