Malala Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is to become the youngest UN Messenger of Peace, the organisation’s chief said on Friday.
Yousafzai, 19, will be appointed on Monday by UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and will help to promote girls’ education around the world as part of her new role.
The Pakistani education activist came to prominence when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head on her school bus in 2012 as punishment for campaigning for girls to go to school, which defied the militant group’s ban on female education.
Yousafzai has since continued campaigning on the world stage and in 2014 became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Guterres said in a statement that “even in the face of grave danger, Malala Yousafzai has shown an unwavering commitment to the rights of women, girls and all people.
“Her courageous activism for girls’ education has already energised so many people around the world.
“Now, as our youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace, Malala can do even more to help create a more just and peaceful world.”
The Pakistani girl who received medical treatment in Britain where she had since studied, had also set up the Malala Fund to support girls’ education projects in developing countries.
Born on July 12, 1997 in Mingora, Pakistan, she had been a regular speaker on global stage and visited refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya last July to highlight the plight of refugee girls from Burundi and Somalia. (Reuters/NAN )