Malala Yousafzai youngest ever to win Nobel Prize

Children's rights activistMalala Yousafzai has become the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize.

The now 17-year-old from Pakistan is an outspoken advocate for girls education. She was critically injured on Oct. 9, 2012, when a gunman shot her in the head while she was riding home on a school bus in the city of Mingora. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

She spent three months in a British hospital recovering, and now lives in England with her family. Militants still threaten to kill her if she returns home.

"They wanted to silence one Malala, but instead now thousands and millions of Malalas are speaking," she told Anna Maria Tremonti, the host of CBC Radio's The Current, in a Canadian exclusive interview that aired in 2013.

In May, she received an honorary doctor of civil law at the 225th Encaenia celebrations for Halifaxs University of Kings College.

The Halifax university also created the Malala Yousafzai Canada Scholarships which are open to young women from developing countries who would not otherwise be able to afford a post-secondary education.

The scholarships cover all tuition and residence fees plus travel to and from Halifax, books, and incidentals.

With an annual value of $30,000 it is the largest scholarship Kings offers international students.

Yousafzai shares the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi of India.

The two shared the prize for "their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

The previous youngest laureate of a Nobel Prize was British scientist William Lawrence Bragg, who won the physics prize in 1915 at age 25. The youngest previous recipient of the peace prize was Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, who won it in 2011 at age 32.

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