Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai marries in England

The 24-year-old married Asser Malik, general manager of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Article content

LONDON – Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner in history, was married in a small religious ceremony at her home in central England, nearly a decade after the Taliban shot her in the head as a a teenage girl in Pakistan for campaigning for a right to education for women and girls.

Yousafzai, 24, announced on social media Tuesday that she had married Asser Malik, general manager of the Pakistan Cricket Board, in a small Islamic marriage ceremony known as nikkah.

“Today marks a precious day in my life. Asser and I were married to be partners for life, ”he wrote. “We held a small nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families.

Please send us your prayers. We are excited to walk together on the journey ahead. “

Article content

Malala moved to Birmingham in 2012 for medical treatment after she was flown in from Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The Taliban attacked her after she blogged about her experiences attending school under their Conservative rule.

Far from being silenced, Malala became a household name and global advocate for women’s education, establishing the Malala Fund in 2013 with her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, who works to defend the right to a free, safe and quality education for girls. .

Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her work in the “fight against the repression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”, which she shared with the Indian rights activist of the boy Kailash Satyarthi.

Article content

On her own personal educational journey, she went on to study at Britain’s Oxford University and graduated in 2020 with a BA in philosophy, politics and economics, following the path of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s first female prime minister, whom has described. as a personal hero.

Her husband Malik describes himself as an entrepreneur with a history of working in the sports industry on his LinkedIn profile. He studied at the prestigious Aitchison College of Pakistan in Lahore, which was also attended by the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. Malik graduated from Lahore University of Management Sciences with a BA in economics and political science in 2012.

In a June interview with British Vogue, Malala spoke of her parents having an “arranged love marriage” and teased that her father received unsolicited emails from potential suitors on her behalf. He also expressed doubts that he would ever marry, prompting a social media backlash in Pakistan, a country where 86% of women over 25 are married, with citizens on Twitter and politicians criticizing what they consider. a threat to the institution of marriage.

“I still don’t understand why people have to get married. If you want to have a person in your life, why do you have to sign marriage papers, why can’t it just be a partnership? “he said at the time, adding that his mother had jokingly rebuked that point of view.

Her social media channels have been flooded with messages about her nuptials, with stars like Reese Wetherspoon, Greta Thunberg, Melinda French Gates and Chelsea Clinton wishing her the best in married life.