Malala wins Nobel Peace Prize, vows to fight on

Malala Yousafzai vowed Wednesday to struggle for every child's right to go to school as she became the youngest ever Nobel laureate, sharing the Peace Prize with Indian campaigner Kailash Satyarthi.

"I will continue this fight until I see every child in school," the 17-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl told an audience in Oslo City Hall after receiving the award.

Malala became a global icon after she was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in October 2012 for insisting that girls had a right to an education.

In a speech peppered with self-deprecating humour, she used the award ceremony to call not just for education but also for fairness and peace.


"The so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don't. Why is it that countries which we call 'strong' are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace?," she said.

"Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult?"

Malala, who described herself as the "first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers," triggered applause and also frequent outbursts of laughter during her speech.

But the underlying message was that a world that may soon be able to send a person to Mars still allows millions to suffer from "the very old problems of hunger, poverty, injustice and conflicts."