(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai dedicated her Nobel peace prize yesterday to "voiceless" children around the world, and called on the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers to attend the award ceremony for the sake of peace.
The 17-year-old, who heard the news while she was in a chemistry lesson at school in Birmingham, central England, said she was honoured to be the youngest person and the first Pakistani to receive the accolade.
"The award is for all the children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard," Malala told a press conference at the end of the school day so she wouldn't miss class.
She arrived in Britain from Pakistan for treatment after being shot in the head by a Taliban fighter in October 2012, an attempt to silence her vocal advocacy of the right of girls to go to school.
Standing on a box so she could reach the podium at Birmingham's main library, she joked that winning the Nobel would not help her in her upcoming school exams.
But she told the audience that included her parents and two younger brothers: "I felt more powerful and more courageous because this award is not just a piece of metal or a medal you wear or an award you keep in your room. This isencouragement for me to go forward."
The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the award to Malala and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi for their struggle against the repression of children and young people and "for the right of all children to education".
Malala said she had spoken to Satyarthi - she joked that she could not pronounce his name - to discuss how they could work together, and try to reduce tensions between their countries.
Former British prime minister Gordon Brown, the UN special envoy for global education, voiced delight at the Nobel victory for Malala and Satyarthi.
"They are two of my best friends and two of the greatest global campaigners who deserve the prize for their courage, determination and vision that no child should be left behind," Brown said in a statement. After visiting her in hospital, Brown took up Malala's cause with a petition for universal primary education handed to Pakistan on a day he named Malala Day, and arranged for her to speak at the UN.
Britain's International Development Secretary Justine Greening congratulated the winners saying the prize was "richly deserved".
In Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hailed Malala as the "ride of Pakistan".
"She is (the) pride of Pakistan. She has made her countrymen proud. Her achievement is unparalleled and unequalled. Girls and boys of the world should take the lead from her struggle and commitment," Sharif's office said in a statement.
The 17-year-old is Pakistan's second-ever Nobel laureate after Abdus Salam, who won the physics prize in 1979 but was widely shunned for being a member of the country's persecuted Ahmadi minority.
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