Nobel Peace Prize Awarded To Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi

The Nobel Peace Prize committee announced on Friday that it would be awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India.

In 2012 at the age of 15, Yousafzai became a proponent of women's education rights after she was shot in the head multiple times by members of the Taliban while riding the bus to school. Yousafzai had been critical of the Taliban's control of her hometown in articles she wrote for BBC News under a pseudonym.

Satyarthi, 60, is a well-known child rights activist in India, starting several programs that seek to protect the safety and promote the education of children.

The two recipients were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their dedication to children, especially through promoting their education and protecting them from exploitation.

"The Nobel Committee 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," Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in a statement on Friday.

"Children must go to school and not be financially exploited," Mr. Jagland said. "It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected. In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation."

"Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi's tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain," Mr. Jagland said. "He has also contributed to the development of important international conventions on children's rights."