Pakistani campaigner for girls' education Malala Yousafzai has been awarded the laureate of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2013, following the decision of the Conference of Presidents (EP President and political group leaders) on 13th October 2013. She was invited to receive the award at a ceremony in Strasbourg on 20 November 2013.

Ms Yousafzai was a student from the town of Mingora in Swat District, Pakistan, known for her women's rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban regime has banned girls from attending school.

On October 9, 2012, on her way home from school, a gunman fired at her, hitting Malala on the left side of her head; the bullet then traveled down her neck. She survived. Malala continued to speak out about her rights, and the rights of all women, to an education.

In 2014, she became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.