Malala Yousafzai, 15, is AsiaPacificUniverse.com’s Person of
the Year for 2012! The young lady had
gained fame before 2012 for her work in exposing the ban on female education in
parts of Pakistan to the rest of the world.
In October, gunmen shot Yousafzai in the head and neck when
she was riding a school bus to her home.
Currently, she is recovering from her injuries in a hospital in the
United Kingdom.
Other candidates
Among the other personalities considered for Person of the
Year in 2012 were U.S. President Barack Obama, North Korean Premier Kim Jong-un
and South Korean YouTube sensation Psy (Park Jae-sang).
President Obama, whose Asia Pacific credentials stem from
his upbringing in Hawai’I and Indonesia, rolled to a rather surprisingly easy
victory over contender Mitt Romney in the U.S. presidential election. The race was “easy” only when looking at
election results in hindsight. During
the campaign, the president looked as if he was in trouble on a number of occasions
and many doubted whether he could win given the economic situation.
In North Korea, Kim Jong-un gained world headlines with
tests of the country’s long-range missiles despite the objections of the
West. Indeed, in an unofficial online
poll by Time Magazine, which awarded Obama with their online person of the year
award, readers voted for Kim by a wide margin.
The other major prospect was South Korean hip hop artist
Psy, whose YouTube video Gangnan Style has smashed all previous records for
views. Despite some controversy over
some statements made in the past objecting to U.S. involvement in the Iraq War,
Psy performed at the White House Christmas celebration.
However, after giving the matter due consideration, it was
found that Yousafzai earned the top spot for galvanizing world attention to the
plight of women in areas dominated by religious fundamentalism.
Bio
Malala Yousafzai is a
native of Mingora, a town in the Swat
District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan . A member of the once-semi-nomadic Pashtun
ethnic group, Malala grew up in an area with significant Taliban influence.
She began speaking out on education for girls and women
beginning in September 2008. A speech
that she gave in nearby Peshawar received coverage from media throughout the
region.
In early 2009, Yousafzai began blogging for BBC Urdu and she
was frank and forthright in attacking the Taliban’s war against female
education. The blog described the
fighting going on in Swat District and also the ban on girl’s schools in the
region.
Eventually she became chair of the District Child Assembly
for swat and she continued her activism by attending the “Open Mind’s” project
of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
In October 2011, Rev. Desmond Tutu announced Malala’s nomination for the
International Children's Peace
Prize in which she was runner-up.
In the same year, she won Pakistan’s first National Youth
Peace Prize and she became a national and international star. The recognition, though, make it easy for her
enemies to target her, and last summer the Taliban voted to assassinate her.
Currently, Malala Yousafzai is recovering from her injuries
in a British hospital. She is scheduled
to undergo reconstructive surgery after a bullet slightly grazed her brain although
she reportedly has no permanent brain damage
A sign that she has not lost her fighting spirit came
yesterday when Yousafzai blasted the Indian government over the handling of the
recent Delhi rape case.
For her courage and her tireless activity to help girls in
Pakistan, and by extension, in many other parts of the world, we proudly name
Malala Yousafzai as APU’s Person of the Year for 2012.
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