Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi have jointly won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Yousafzai, a Pakistani child education activist, is the youngest recipient ever at the age of 17. She took the world by storm after being shot in the head by the Taliban in October 2012 for campaigning for girls’ education.
Satyarthi is an Indian child rights campaigner who led peaceful protests via his foundation Bachpan Bachao Andolan (or Save the Childhood Movement). He is most well-known for “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” the Nobel committee said at the announcement in Oslo.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated Malala Yousafzai, calling her the “pride” of his country.
Satyarthi told the BBC of his win that the award is dedicated “to all those children in the world” who have “still been living in slavery despite all of the advancement in technology, market and economy.”
The Nobel committee praised the pair’s “struggle against the suppression of children and young people,” according to BBC.
The committee also said it was important that a Muslim Pakistani and a Hindu Indian were recognized together in fighting in what it called a common struggle for education and against extremism.
This year, a record number of 278 people were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, including Pope Francis, Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
