Education activist Malala earns a place at Oxford
LONDON — Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman when she was 15 for speaking out for the right to an education, has been accepted to the University of Oxford.
The 20-year-old activist shared word of her acceptance to the school on Twitter and included a screenshot of her “congratulations” notice. She will study philosophy, politics and economics, the favoured degree of many of Britain’s top leaders.
“So excited to go to Oxford,” Yousafzai wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Yousafzai will study at Lady Margaret Hall, an Oxford college whose notable alumni include the late Benazir Bhutto, the former leader of Pakistan and a hero of Yousafzai, and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In 2012, Yousafzai was shot by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan after she had called for the right of girls to go to school, a topic she started raising publicly as an 11-year-old.
After being treated at a hospital in Birmingham, England, she continued her education in the city and went on to win the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
“As far as I know, I am just a committed and even stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education, who wants to see women having equal rights and who wants peace in every corner of the world,” Yousafzai said on the day she collected the Nobel. “Education is one of the blessings of life, and one of its necessities.”
Her acceptance to a university marks a milestone in Yousafzai’s steady progression to achieve her dreams. Social media erupted into the technological equivalent of rounds of applause.
Among those offering accolades were the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian newspaper, who is now principal of Lady Margaret Hall. He tweeted: “Welcome to Oxford, Malala.”
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, wrote on Twitter: “My heart is full of gratitude. We are grateful to Allah and thank you to all those who support Malala.”