Malala Yousafzai 'proud' to be Nobel Peace Prize co-winner

Children's rights activistMalala Yousafzai of Pakistan says she is honoured to share this year's Nobel Peace Prize with India'sKailashSatyarthi, whose work also involves protecting the interests of young people.

"I'm proud that I'm the first Pakistani and the first young woman, or the first young person, who is getting this award,"Yousafzai, 17, told journalists in Birmingham, England, where she now lives afterNorwegian Nobel Committee chairThorbjrnJagland announced the honour in Oslo.

She was at school when the announcement was made Friday.Yousafzaiis the youngest winner of a Nobel Prize.The previous youngest laureate was British scientist William Lawrence Bragg, who won for physics in 1915 at age 25.

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As for the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner,Yousafzaieclipses Yemeni activistTawakkolKarman, who won in 2011 at 32.

YousafzaiandSatyarthiare being honoured for "theirstruggleagainst the suppression of children and young people, and for the right of all children to education," the committee said.

The committee 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."

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For her part, Yousafzaisaid her win is not the end of her campaign for children's education rights.

She also paid homage to her father.

An outspoken advocate for girls education, Yousafzai was critically injured on Oct. 9, 2012, when a gunman shot her in the head while she was riding home ona school bus in the city ofMingora. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"I had really two options," she said Friday in an impromptu address after the award was announced.

"One was not to speak and wait to be killed. 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, 'cause education was totally banned. People were killed. At that time, I needed to raise my voice, because I wanted to go back to school."

Still gets threats

Yousafzaispent three months in a British hospital recovering, and now lives in England with her family. Militants still threaten to kill her if she returns home.

"They wanted to silence one Malala, but instead now, thousands and millions of Malalas are speaking," she told Anna Maria Tremonti, the host of CBC Radio'sThe Current, in aCanadian exclusive interviewthat aired in 2013.

Yousafzai'scampaigns for girls' education began while she was11. She started blogging under a pseudonym for the BBC about her love of learning and Taliban oppression in Pakistan, especially its ban on educating girls in her area.

News of her Nobel Peace Prize win touchedcelebrations in her hometown of Mingora, Pakistan. Students danced atKhushal PublicSchool, which is owned by Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai.

Speaking to The Associated Press, her father said the Nobel honour will "boost the courage of Malala and enhance hercapability to work for the cause of girls' education."

Thousands rescued from slavery

Satyarthi, 60, has been active in the children's rights movement since 1980. His work has led to the rescueof thousands of children from slavery, and he has survived several attempts on his life.

In maintaining the traditions of Mahatma Gandhi, Satyarthihas "headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain," the Nobel committee said Friday.

Satyarthi dedicated his win to children in slavery,Reuters reported.

IndianPresident Pranab Mukherjee said "the prize should be seen as recognition of the contributions of India's vibrant civil society in addressing complex social problems such as child labour."

UNSecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon said the world's children were Friday's "true winners."He praised Satyarthi's "heroic work" and Malala's "courage and determination."

"Both Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi have demonstrated tremendous courage in the face of powerful adversaries," said UN High Commissioner for Human RightsZeid Raad Al Hussein.

The winners wereselected from a list of278 nominees,the highest number of candidates ever. The list included 47 organizations, the Nobel committee said. The previous record was 259 in 2013.

The winners of the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and literature were announced earlier this week. The economics award winner will be announced on Monday.

All the Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Osloon Dec.10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

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