Malala is sure: “There is hope”” “

There are children who “do not want an iPhone, a PlayStation or chocolates, they just want a book and a pen. Let’s not leave them alone”. Malala Yousafzai is only 16, for the past five years she has fought her own battle to ensure that children in her Country, Pakistan, and all over the world, are not denied the right to education, especially young girls. When she was 11 she started writing an anonymous diary for the BBC online blog in Urdu, denouncing the impossibility for children to access school in the Swat valley due to a ban imposed by the Talibans. Her battle then took the streets, the media voiced her claims, until in October 2012 she was the victim of an attack which she miraculously survived. But she doesn’t give up, and constantly repeats the word “hope”. “A global icon” of rights. Malala was welcomed in the seat of the European Assembly in Strasbourg on November 20. With a simple yet significant ceremony she was awarded the 2013 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. She is the youngest recipient in the history of the Prize. She follows the wake of Nelson Mandela, Alexander Dubcek, Aung San Suu Kyi, Damas de blanco and Leyla Zana, Ibrahim Rugova and Kofi Annan, Reporters without borders and Guillermo Farinas. Just like them she is a symbol of the promotion of fundamental rights and democracy. “Malala – said EU Parliament president Martin Schulz, presenting her in the hemicycle – is a young heroine, a global icon, forced to live in another Country because the Talibans threaten to kill her. Malala brought her battle across the borders, fully committing herself to ensure an education to young girls and women worldwide”. Stirring consciences. “2013 marks 25 years of recognition of the defence and promotion of human rights through the Sakharov Prize”, Schulz said before giving the floor to Yousafzai. “Over the years we have recognized and supported the struggle of individuals and organizations that took courageous stands against racism and repression, war and terrorism, prison and torture, in the defence of their own rights and the rights of others”. When Malala entered the parliament Hall all MEPs stood up and welcomed her with a warm applause. “In the name of God, generous and merciful..”. These were the opening words of the speech of the young human rights activist, spoken with a gentle but firm voice, her head covered by the traditional orange veil. “In this very moment millions of children in the world are suffering hunger, they have no education, they are being exploited. This should stir our consciences”, she denounced. “It’s hard to image a world without education”, underlined Malala, who is forced to live in the United Kingdom to avoid the revenge of her persecutors. She recalled that in her Country “girls cannot go to school, they suffer violence and abuses of all kinds, they are forced to live at home without being able to speak freely and denied all rights. They are forced to early marriage. But there is hope… In my Country – she added – there is war and terrorism, but there is hope… in the world there is poverty, but there is hope… there is hope because we are here, together, to denounce these injustices and because we will fight together, to help these young girls and boys. We must take action to help them”. The real superpowers… “Dear brothers and sisters – continued Malala Yousafzai -, we need a change in mentality. Let us change the ideology of power. May the great nations be judged not for their army and their weapons but for their ability to produce education and culture, for their defence of fundamental rights, because they treat men and women as equals. Those are the true superpowers”. Malala told MEPs: “We must fight for the weak, for their very survival. If we abandon millions of people on the borders of our societies how will they survive?” Yousafzai, who arrived in Strasbourg accompanied by her father, who has followed and encouraged her commitment for human rights, emphasized the hope and the duty to “undertake common action that will restore rights and justice to peoples and individuals all over the world”.