Malala wins top rights award

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai waves her RAW (Reach All Women) in War Anna Politkovskaya Award while giving a speech after receiving the award at the Southbank Centre in London. The award is presented to a woman human rights defender from a conflict who stands up for victims at their own personal risk. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai waves her RAW (Reach All Women) in War Anna Politkovskaya Award while giving a speech after receiving the award at the Southbank Centre in London. The award is presented to a woman human rights defender from a conflict who stands up for victims at their own personal risk. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Published Oct 5, 2013

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 London - The Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban assassination attempt has won an award named for a murdered Russian journalist.

 Malala Yousafzai, an education activist, was shot as she traveled to school in northwest Pakistan in October 2012. She was declared winner of the Anna Politkovskaya Award on Friday.

 The award is given annually by group RAW in WAR to a female human rights defender.

 RAW in WAR says 16-year-old Yousafzai was chosen "for her courage to speak out when nobody else dared, for her strength to give a voice to the many women and girls, whose voices cannot be heard, and for her passionate belief in promoting education for girls."

 She was due to receive the award in London from 104-year-old Nicholas Winton, who rescued Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

  Sapa-AP

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