Yousafzai is an advocate for girls having access to education worldwide. She has been fighting for this since she was 11 years old when she gave her speech “How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right to Education?” in September 2008 at a local press club in Peshawar, Pakistan. Around this time, Yousafzai’s father was running a secret school for girls in their town, but in January 2009, the Taliban shut it down. In 2009, she began writing secret blogs about the Taliban’s rules and restrictions. She was eventually found out three years later and was consequently shot while on her school bus, according to malala.org.
Yousafzai and her father founded the Malala Fund to bring awareness to what has been happening to girls’ education. They also began reporting to the United Nations in 2013. With all her efforts, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest person ever to be given the award. Yousafzai has been designated by Secretary-General António Guterres as the “United Nations Messenger of Peace” in 2017, meaning she would be able to spread and raise awareness for girls’ education, according to malala.org.
She has traveled to many countries to meet girls who have been fighting poverty, war, child marriage and discrimination. In Pakistan, she was able to get over two million people to sign a right to education petition and make the National Assembly ratify Pakistan’s first Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill. Currently, Yousafzai is the executive chair of the Malala Fund and continues to talk to leaders around the world about girls’ education, according to un.org.
Maathai is the first ever African woman to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, as well as being the first woman in East Africa to gain a PhD and lead a university department. She focused on environmentalism, feminism and development aspects, fighting for recognition in those areas. Maathai began her advocacy when she grew concerned about the environmental degradation affecting women’s lives and incomes, according to lse.ac.uk.com.
She grew up in Kenya and began seeking higher education in 1964 at Mount St. Scholastica College while majoring in biology. She was able to receive a Bachelor of Science in biology and later attended the University of Pittsburgh, graduating with a master's in biological sciences. Maathai then graduated from the University of Nairobi in 1971, when she became the first woman in East Africa to earn a doctorate. She then taught there and became a chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, according to lse.ac.uk.
Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement because she noticed deforestation was causing water supplies to dry up, increasing food insecurity and habitat loss. When plans were revealed to build a tower in Uhuru Park, which is the largest park in Nairobi, Maathai began protesting by lobbying and letter writing. She eventually got challenged by then president of Kenya Daniel arap Moi. Her protest was successful because foreign investors started leaving the project and the plans for the tower disappeared. But in 1992, she was arrested for her political actions. While on bail, she kept protesting in Uhuru Park. In 1997, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, planting over 51 million trees since its creation. The movement has trained over 30,000 women in different skills, such as beekeeping and forestry, allowing them a chance to earn money and help protect their environment. In 2002, Maathai was elected as a member of the Kenyan parliament, becoming the Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife, according to lse.ac.uk.
