Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
Malala Yousafzai
In the name of God the most beneficent, the most merciful who is the God of all mankind. Wherever I go and speak, the only problem I face is that the podium is usually taller than me. So I hope it will be good this time.

I’m feeling honored that I am being chosen as a Nobel laureate and I have been honored with this – this precious award, the Nobel Peace Prize. And I’m proud that I’m the first Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person who is getting this award. It’s a great honor for me. And I’m also really happy that I’m sharing this award with a person – with a person from India whose name is Kailash Satyarthi and his great work for child’s right, his great work against – against child slavery.

Totally inspires me and I am really happy that there are so many people who are working for children’s right and I’m not alone. And he totally deserved this award.

So I am feeling honored that I’m sharing this award with him.

He recieved this award and we both are the two Nobel award receivers, one is from Pakistan, one is from India, one believes in Hinduism, one strongly believes in Islam. And it gives a message to people – it gives a message to people of love between Pakistan and India and between – between different religions and we both support each other.

It does not matter what’s the color of your skin, what language do you speak, what religion you believe in. It is that we should all consider each other as human beings and we should respect each other and we should all fight for our rights, for the rights of children, for the rights of women and for the rights of every human being.

First of all, I would like to thank my family, my dear father, my dear mother for their love, for their support. As my father always say, he did not give me something extra, but what he did Dad, he did not clip my wings. So I’m thankful to my father for not clipping my wings, for – for letting me to fly and achieve my goals, for showing to the world that a girl is not supposed to be the – a slave.

A girl has the power to go forward in her life. And she’s not only a mother, she’s not only a sister, she’s not only a wife. But a girl has the – she should have an identity. She should be recognized and she has equal rights as a boy. Even though my brother thinks that they are treated um…um… — that I am treated very well and they are not treated very well. But that’s fine. If it comes – if it’s that – that’s fine.

Um…I would like to share with you how I found out about the Nobel Peace Prize and it’s quite exciting because I was in my chemistry class and we were studying about electrolysis and [inaudible] and the time was, I think 10:15. So the time of the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize was gone and before that I was not expecting that I would get this award and when it went to, like, 10:15, I was totally sure that I haven’t won it. But then suddenly one of my teachers came to the class and she called me and she said, “I have something important to tell you.” And I was totally surprised when she told me congratulations, you have won the Nobel Peace Prize and you are sharing it with a – with a great person who is also working for children’s rights. And I – it’s sometimes quite difficult to express your feelings, but I felt really honored.

I felt more powerful and more courageous because this award is not just a piece of metal or a medal that you would wear, or an award that you would keep in your room, but this is really an encouragement for me to go forward and to believe in myself. To know that there are people who are supporting me in this campaign. And we are standing together. We all want to make sure that every child gets quality education. So this is really — this is really something – something great for me.

However, when I found that I have won the Nobel Peace Prize, I decided that I would not leave my school, rather I would finish my school time, I would — I went to physics lesson, I learned, I went to English lessons and it was totally like uh… I considered it as a normal day and I was really happy by the response of my teachers and my fellow students. They were all saying that we are proud of you and uh… I’m really thankful to my school, to my teachers, to my school fellows for their love, for their support and really encouraged me and they’re supporting me. So I’m happy. Even though it’s not going to help me in my tests and exams because it totally depends on my hard work. But, still, I’m really happy that they are supporting me.
I have got – I have received this award, but this is not the end. This is not the end. This is not the end of this campaign which I have started. I think this is really the beginning and I want to see every child going to school. There are still 57 million children who have not received education, who are still out of the primary schools and I want to see every child going to school and getting – getting education because I have – I have myself suffered through the same situation when I was in swat valley and you all may know that in swat there was Talibanization and because of that no girl was allowed to go to school.

At that time I stood up for my rights and I said I would speak up. I do not wait for someone else. I do not wait for someone else. I had really two options. One was not to speak and wait to be killed. And the second was – and the second was to speak up and then be killed and I chose the second one because at that time there was terrorism, women were not allowed to go outside of their houses because education was totally banned, people were killed. At that time I needed to raise my voice because I wanted to go back to school. I was also one of those girls who could not get education.

I wanted to learn I wanted to learn and be who – who I can be in my future. And I also had dreams. I also had dreams like a normal child has.

I wanted to become a doctor at that time. Now I want to become a politician, a good politician. And when I heard that I can not go to school, I just for a second thought that I would never able become a doctor or I would never be able to be who I want to be in the future and my life would be just getting married at the age of 13 or 14, not going to school, not becoming who I really can be so I decided that – that I will speak up.

So through my story I want to tell other children all around the world that they should stand up for their rights. They should not wait for someone else and their voices are more powerful. Their voices – it would seem that they are weak, but at the time when no one speak, your voice gets so loud that everyone has to listen to it. Everyone has to hear it. So it’s my message to children all around the world that they should stand up for their rights.

And the award that I have received uh…Nobel Peace Prize. I believe that the Nobel Committee, they – they haven’t given this just to me. But this award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard. And I speak for them and I stand up with them and I join them in their campaign, that their voices should be heard and they should be listened and they have rights. They have rights. They have the right to receive quality education. They have the right not to suffer from child labor, not to suffer from child trafficking. They have the right to live a happy life. So I stand up with – with all those children and this award is especially for them. It gives them courage.

At the end, um…I would like to share with you that I had a phone call with honorable Kailash. I cannot pronounce his surname accurately so please I just ask for forgiveness for that. I will just call him Kailash if he wouldn’t mind. So I had a phone call with him right now and we both talked about how important it is that every child goes to school and every child gets quality education and how many issues are there that the children are suffering, but I’m not yet highlighted. So we both decide – we both decided that we will work together for the cause that every child gets quality education and do not suffer from these issues.

Other than that, we also decided that as he’s from India and I’m from Pakistan we will try to build strong relationships between India and Pakistan. And nowadays you know that there is tension on the border and the situation is getting uh…it’s not like as we are expecting, we want Pakistan and India to have good relationships and the tension that is going on is disappointing and I’m really sad because I want both the countries to have dialogue, to have talks about peace, and to – to think about progress, to think about development, rather than fighting with each other. It’s important that both countries focus more on education, focus more on development and progress, which is good for both of them.

So we both decided that um…I requested him that would it be possible that he request His Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join us when we receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December. And I promised him that I would also request the honorable prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, to join us when I get and he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. So, and I myself request the honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and honorable Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, that they both join us when we receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

I really believe in peace. I really believe in tolerance and patience and it is very important for the progress of both countries that they have peace and they have good relationships. This is how they are going to achieve success and this is how they’re going to – they are going to progress.

So it is my humble request and I hope it will be – hope it will be listened.

At the end, I want to say that I’m really happy for your support.

I used to say that I think I do not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I still believe that. But I believe that it is not only an award for what I have done but also an encouragement for giving me hope, for giving me the courage to go and continue this campaign, to believe in myself and to know that I’m not alone, there are hundreds and thousands and millions who are supporting me.
So once again, thank you so much to all of you. Thank you.
Write the lyrics for a misc song made in 2014, titled "Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech", by artist "Malala Yousafzai".