OSLO - The youngest-ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala Yousafzai, said in Oslo on Tuesday that winning the prize is not the burden that some warned it might be. Rather, she said, it provides strength, and her co-winner, Kailash Satyarthi of India, agreed.
Yousafzai and Satyarthi, speaking at the traditional press conference held the day before the Nobel Peace is awarded, joked and laughed with one another but were also serious when asked what the prize can mean for them and their work in promoting the rights of children. Satyarthi said it already had significantly raise awareness about the problem of child labour, for example, both in his native India and around the world.
“This prize is very important for the millions and millions of children who are denied their childhoods,” he said. With Yousafzai nodding alongside him, he added that “this prize is for all the girls and boys in the world.”
When asked as to how she’d responded to concerns that winning a Nobel Peace Prize could be a huge burden for a 17-year-old, the young winner said it was not. “I was already feeling the pressure when I first decided to work (for the rights of all children, especially girls, to go to school),” she said. “This Nobel Peace Prize isn’t more pressure, it’s strength.”
The two prize winners praised each other’s work and said they were proud to be on the winners’ podium together. There has long been hostility between their two countries, but they wish Indians and Pakistanis would work together and respect one another. “I’m so lucky to receive this prize together with her,” Satyarthi said, while Malala added that she felt “really honoured to sit here with a father who has struggled for children for so many years.” He had already joked about adopting Malala, and wishing he “could take her home with us.” Together, he said, they can make the world safer, working “for peace for children, and children for peace.”
Right after the Peace Prize was announced, Malala announced that she would like the prime ministers of both Pakistan and India to attend Wednesday’s award ceremony in Oslo. Satyarthi said there’d been no response, “so they’re probably not coming.” Malala said “it would have been a great honour” and “I would have been very happy” if they came. “Countries have borders, but there should be no hate,” she said. “We are all people, like anyone else.” Satyarthi added that for him, “the most important thing is building trust and friendship between the two countries When asked if they have a message for each other’s country, Malala said that India must continue to teach its children to learn peace. “You have Kailash Satyarthi, what more do you need? Let’s teach children to understand peace, then we will soon become bhai-bhai,” she said.
Satyarthi said “Whoever disrupts the work, whether it’s Pakistan or India, there will be children like Malala to protest.”
“The people-to-people relationship between India, Pakistan is important for me,” Satyarthi added.
Referring to themselves as ‘father and daughter’, Satyarthi and Malala stated that they were honoured to receive the coveted award, urging India and Pakistan to work towards peace.
“Malala is like my daughter. She is the bravest child one can think of,” Satyarthi said.
“I am honoured to sit with my father. We strongly believe in Islam. Islam is a religion of peace, but unfortunately there are people who don’t know about this religion,” she said.
Satyarthi dismissed the idea that violence against girls in the Muslim world was a factor of religion itself. “The very meaning of Islam is love and humanity,” he said. “Some people use politics, businesses or religion for their short-term benefits and gains.”