June 24, 2015

Capital Sisters staff were honored to hear Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai speak to a sold out crowd at the Bellco Theater in Denver.

On October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, Malala was shot in the head while riding the bus home from school, for speaking out about her right to go to school. Few expected her to survive but instead an extraordinary journey has taken her from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At seventeen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The day before her Denver visit Malala met with lawmakers in Washington DC to discuss the importance of education and its role in creating a peaceful world.

After telling her story, Malala spoke to the crowd about the right of women and girls to have an education and also the right to be an equal individual in society. Malala likened the mountains of Colorado to those that she loved in her homeland in the Swat Valley.

The Malala Fund, the nonprofit organization she founded, promotes education for girls so that they can achieve their potential and inspire positive change in their communities.