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Malala Yousafzai Totally Bossed Her GCSEs

Malala Totally Bossed Her GCSEs
Lucy Sherriff

Not satisfied with winning a Nobel peace prize, speaking with leaders around the world and campaigning tirelessly for girls' right to an education, Malala Yousafzai has gone and aced her GCSEs too.

The Pakistani pupil has always prioritised her schoolwork; turning down a string of interviews and speaking opportunities so she would never miss a day of studying at Birmingham's independent Edgbaston high school.

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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai poses for a picture during her visit to Azraq refugee camp, Jordan

On Friday, her proud father, who has dedicated himself to Malala's campaigning, tweeted his daughter's education achievements:

Malala came to the UK in 2012, for treatment at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth hospital, after she was shot in the head on her school bus by Taliban gunmen, who targeted her for her activism.

The 18-year-old has received widespread congratulations for her exam results, including from her home country's Express Tribune, who said the schoolgirl "continues to make Pakistan proud".

Why Malala Yousafzai Is An Inspiration
And she's inspiring millions of others to do the same(01 of05)
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In the weeks after she was shot, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, launched a petition in her name. The Malala Petition called for the U.N. to recommit to Millennium Development Goal 2, which aims to get every child in school by 2015. The petition eventually got more than 3 million signatures.

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(02 of05)
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“We must help girls fight all the obstacles in their lives, and stand up and speak bravely and overcome the fear they have in their hearts,” Malala said at a private dinner in August, per Forbes.

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." (credit:AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
And her organization, Malala Fund, is changing the world(03 of05)
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Malala said at this year's Clinton Global Initiative that her fund is pledging a $3 million multi-year commitment, in partnership with Echidna Giving, to support education initiatives in developing countries, according to ABC News.

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.) (credit:AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)
She won’t let haters stand in her way (04 of05)
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She has supporters worldwide, but Malala has also endured her fair share of criticism.

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." (credit:AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
And her dreams are big and wonderful(05 of05)
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Malala told CNN's Christiane Amanpour last year that she hopes to one day be the prime minister of Pakistan. "Through politics, I can serve my whole country," she said.

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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