Malala Day 2025: History, Significance And Powerful Quotes On Education
Malala Day is celebrated to honour the strength of Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who has been vocal about support for girls' education.
Malala Day 2025: In today's world, few figures embody resilience and hope for young people quite like Malala Yousafzai. At an age when most children are focused on play, Malala fearlessly stood up to the Taliban in defence of girls' education. Her extraordinary courage is honoured each year on Malala Day, observed on 12 July.
Now a graduate of the University of Oxford and having entered a new chapter in life through marriage, Malala continues to be celebrated globally for her unwavering strength, wisdom, and commitment to justice.
Malala Day 2025: History And Significance
Malala Day is observed on July 12, marking the birthday of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a global symbol of courage and advocacy for girls' education. The United Nations officially declared this day in 2013 to honour her bravery and to reinforce the message that education is a fundamental right, not a privilege.
Malala was born on July 12, 1997, in the Mingora region of Pakistan. In 2012, while returning home from school on a bus, she was shot by the Taliban in an assassination attempt that also injured two of her classmates.
The attack was a direct response to her outspoken activism for girls' right to education in a region where the Taliban strongly opposed it. She sustained a gunshot wound to the head and remained unconscious for several days.
After initial treatment at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, she was transferred to the United Kingdom for further medical care and rehabilitation.
Rather than being silenced, the attack strengthened Malala's resolve. She continued her global campaign for education and became a powerful voice for millions of girls denied access to schooling.
In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, becoming the youngest Nobel laureate in history, the second Pakistani, and the first Pashtun to receive the honour.
Malala Day 2025: Quotes
'One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world."
'Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow. Education is neither Eastern nor Western, it is human."
'They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And then, out of that silence came thousands of voices."
'The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women."
'I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard."
'Education is the only solution. Education first."
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July 12, 2025, 07:30 IST
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