STRASBOURG, France, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who became a Taliban target, received the Sakharov Prize Wednesday from the European Parliament.
The 16-year-old spoke of the need for education in Pakistan and elsewhere, a Parliament news release said. She said the strength of countries should be measured by the education of their citizens, not by the size of their armies.
"There is poverty, lack of freedom, fear and terrorism, but there is hope, because we are all here together united to help these children, to speak for them, to take action," Yousafzai said of Pakistan.
Yousafzai received the prize in its 25th anniversary year, the European Union said in a news release. Twenty-two former recipients attended the ceremony.
The prize was named in honor of Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet scientist and dissident. Yousafzai received 50,000 euros ($67,000).
In her speech, Yousafzai spoke of the plight of children around the world kept from education: "These children do not want an iPhone, an Xbox, a PlayStation or chocolates. They just want a book and a pen."
Yousafzai, who began blogging anonymously about life in Pakistan in 2009 and became an education advocate, especially for women, was almost killed in October 2012 by the Taliban. She spent months in an English hospital after the attack.
