Malala Yousafzai Named Winner

Malala Yousafzai has been named the winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest ever recipient of the prize, Huffington Post reports.

The 17-year-old Pakistani girl is a joint awardee with Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi.

Malala came to prominence when she was shot in the head by the Taliban for openly expressing her opinion on the educational rights of women.

She has now taken her campaign worldwide and even paid a visit to Nigeria to speak with on the fate of the over 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno state.

Second awardee, Satyarthi has advocated for child rights in his home country, India and through his organization, Global March Against Child Labour, constantly fights against child slavery and other forms of child abuse.

Malala spoke about the possibility of winning the prize last year saying:

“If I win Nobel Peace Prize, it would be a great opportunity for me, but if I don’t get it, it’s not important because my goal is to get peace and my goal is to see education of every child,"

The Nobel Peace prize has been given to organizations for the past two years but according to the overseeing committee, the decision to give the joint prize  was essential to allow "a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism".