Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai and India's Kailash Satyarthi awarded joint Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai and India's Kailash Satyarthi awarded joint Nobel Peace Prize
(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize to two advocates for the rights of children. The committee gave the 2014 prize jointly to Malala Yousafzai, 17, of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi, 60, of India "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education."

Of the two, Yousafzai is probably the better known. A campaigner in the "heroic struggle" for girls to get an education, she famously survived being shot in the head two years ago by a Taliban militant opposed to her cause. Satyarthi, the Nobel committee says, has shown "great personal courage" by leading peaceful protests "focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain."

The fact that India and Pakistan are enemies wasn't lost on the Nobel committee, which said it "regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism." Yousafzai is the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize, by a lot. Before this year, the youngest Nobel Peace laureate was 2011 winner Tawakkol Karman, who was 32 at the time.

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.