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

Pakistan&#039;s Malala Yousafzai and India&#039;s Kailash Satyarthi awarded joint Nobel Peace Prize

(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

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 has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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