Malala Confirms She's Going To Oxford This Fall
Pakistani female-education campaigner Malala Yousafzai is headed to Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics, or PPE, this fall, she confirmed Thursday on Twitter.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and students across the U.K. collected their A-level exam results on Thursday, which determine where they ultimately continue their studies after high school.
Rumors about Yousafzai’s attendance at Oxford began to swirl earlier this year when she confirmed to Teen Vogue in an April interview that she had applied to PPE programs in the U.K. Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, one of Yousafzai’s role models, completed a degree in PPE at Oxford.
So excited to go to Oxford!! Well done to all A-level students - the hardest year. Best wishes for life ahead! pic.twitter.com/miIwK6fNSf
— Malala (@Malala) August 17, 2017
University life will undoubtedly represent somewhat of a lifestyle change for the 20-year-old, who has juggled school and activist responsibilities for several years. She’s already made the most of her remaining free time, though. She devoted her summer before college to meeting with young women across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America as part of her Girl Power Trip.
In her teens, Yousafzai blogged about life under the Taliban while living in Pakistan. She rose to international prominence in 2012 after she was shot in the head by the Taliban, who opposed female education efforts, on her way home from school. She was flown to the U.K. for medical treatment, where she’s lived ever since. She used her struggle as an opportunity to fight for female education worldwide.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that Benazir Bhutto was the former president of Pakistan. It’s since been corrected to reflect that she was the prime minister.
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And she's inspiring millions of others to do the same
The petition reportedly prompted Pakistan to pass a Right to Education bill, which guarantees free education for all children.
Malala advocates for young women everywhere
A month before, the young woman had met with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, Nigeria, to advocate for the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped by terrorist group Boko Haram.
At the time, Malala addressed the girls’ captors: “Lay down your weapons. Release your sisters. Release my sisters. Release the daughters of this nation. Let them be free. They have committed no crime."
And her organization, Malala Fund, is changing the world
Also this year, Malala and other team members from her fund helped hundreds of Syrian children refugees cross from their war-torn country into Jordan. Malala and her organization have been advocating for the more than 1 million displaced Syrian refugee children and helping them get access to education.
(In the photograph above, Malala is pictured chatting with a 16-year-old Syrian refugee during a visit to a refugee camp near the Syrian border, in Mafraq, Jordan, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014.)
She won’t let haters stand in her way
She has, for instance, been accused by some of abandoning her own people and becoming a Western mouthpiece. Responding to these accusations, she told the BBC last year: "My father says that education is neither Eastern or Western. Education is education: it's the right of everyone."
And her dreams are big and wonderful
The youngster is a believer in big dreams. "The important thing is to always ask the world to do some things. But sometimes they cannot be done, so you have to take a stab and you have to do them,” she said in August.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
