Malala Yousafzai Will Study at Oxford University

2014 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai,  who was shot by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan at age 15 for campaigning for girls’ rights to education, has gained a place at prestigious Oxford University after getting her A-level results. She will be studying philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall.  She will be studying the same course at the same college attended by the late Benazir Bhutto, the one-time leader of Pakistan and a hero of Yousafzai’s, and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner.

20-year old Yousafzai won international renown in 2012 after she was shot  as a teenager for speaking out for the right of girls to go to school, a topic she started raising publicly as an 11 year old. After being treated at a hospital in Birmingham, England, she continued her education in the city.

“As far as I know, I am just a committed and even stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education, who wants to see women having equal rights and who wants peace in every corner of the world,” she said on the day she collected the Nobel. “Education is one of the blessings of life, and one of its necessities.”

Her acceptance to a university marks a milestone in Malala’s steady progression to achieve her dreams. Social media erupted into the technological equivalent of rounds of applause. Among those offering accolades were author JK Rowling and Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian newspaper who is now principal of Lady Margaret Hall.