Remember Malala, the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girl's right to education? Well, after being tipped as favourite to win, she missed out on the coveted Nobel Peace prize which was won by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW.
Malala Yousafzai, is a 16 year old blogger and activist who was shot in the head whilst in a bus on her way home from school on the 9th of October, 2012. She came to prominence at the age of 11 for writing a dairy for the BBC Urdu program. On her blog, she wrote about life under Taliban occupation in her hometown of Swat Valley. Among other things, the Taliban prohibited girls from going to school.
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| Malala being taken to the hospital after being shot. |
Malala, now living in Birmingham after receiving life-saving surgery in the UK, was tipped to win the Nobel Peace prize this year only a few days after winning the EU's Sakharov human rights prize. On 10th October, 2013, a year and a day after she was shot, she beat Edward Snowden, fugitive US whistle blower to win the 50,000 euro ($65,000) prize.
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Malala received a standing ovation after delivering a speech at a special youth
assembly convention of the UN. 12th July, 2013, UN Headquarters. |
This years Nobel Peace award went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in honour of their 'extensive work to eliminate chemical weapons'. This is in the wake of their activities in Syrai. This is the first time that the OPCW, based in the Hague and established in 1997, is working in an active war zone. Accepting the gold medal and the 8m Swedish Kronor ($1.25m, £780,000) cash prize, Ahmet Uzumcu, Director General of the OPCW, said that is was a 'great honour' and will spur the organization on.
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| Ahmet Uzumcu, Director General OPCW. |
Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was also in contention for the top award.
