UNITED NATIONS — Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 16th birthday on the world stage at the United Nations, defiantly telling Taliban extremists who tried to end her campaign for girls’ education in Pakistan with a bullet that the attack gave her new courage and demanding that world leaders provide free education to all children.
Malala was invited Friday to give her first public speech since she was shot in the head on her way back from school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley last October. She addressed nearly 1,000 young leaders from over 100 countries at the U.N.’s first Youth Assembly — and she had a message for them too.
“Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons,” Malala urged. “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.”
The U.N. had declared July 12 — her 16th birthday — “Malala Day.” But she insisted it was “the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights.”
The Taliban, which has long opposed educating girls in Pakistan as well as neighboring Afghanistan, said it targeted Malala because she was campaigning for girls to go to school and promoted “Western thinking.”
In what some observers saw as another sign of defiance, Malala said the white shawl she was wearing belonged to Pakistan’s first woman prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007 when she returned to run in for elected office.
Malala recalled Oct. 9, 2012, the day she was shot on the left side of her forehead. Her friends were shot as well. She said she was just one of thousands of victims of the Taliban.
“They thought that the bullets would silence us,” she said. “But they failed. And then, out of that silence came thousands of voices.”
Malala said she learned to “be peaceful and love everyone” from Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and other global advocates of nonviolence; from the compassion of religious figures Mohammad, Jesus Christ and Buddha; from the legacy of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who led Pakistan to independence in 1947.
“I’m not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban, or any other terrorist group. I’m here to speak about the right of education for every child.”
Malala said her main focus was on the education of girls and the rights of women “because they are suffering the most.”