On Thursday, at the United Nations, Malala Yousefzai celebrated her 16th birthday by addressing the United Nations Youth Assembly, making a remarkably mature call for the education of all, for peace and for standing up for one’s rights through civil disobedience. Ms. Malala, who was shot in the head in Pakistan by the Taliban last October for her outspoken advocacy of education for girls, was unbowed and defiant, evoking as her guides Mohammed, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi, Mohammed al Jinnah, Bacha Khan and Mother Theresa, as well as her parents.
She calls education “the most powerful weapon” with which to change the world.