Malala to speak at special event in Edinburgh

LONDON: Nobel Prize Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, will speak at a special event in Edinburgh in December this year.

According to reports, Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner, will speak at the Social Bite event to thank those taking part in this year’s Sleep in the Park event in December.

She will also attend a lunch at the Social Bite restaurant Vesta during the visit on 13 March, according to BBC. Social Bite distributes free food to the homeless.

Celebrities including George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, have visited the social enterprise in previous years.

Earlier this month, a portrait of Ms Yousafzai, was put on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The portrait is painted by a New York-based Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat.

Alongside the painting, a poem is also inscribed in Pashto titled ‘To the Malala of the Maiwand on her rebirth’ by Rahmat Shah Saail. The news of the Malala portrait was shared by a London-based tweeple Nadir Cheema posted related to the art piece saying:  “Malala’s portrait unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery painted by Shirin Neshat.”

Malala Yousafzai, has been living in the UK since October 2012. She was shifted from Pakistan to a hospital in Birmingham after she had sustained a bullet in her head in a targeted attack by militants in Swat. She was on her way home in a school van with other girls after an exam when the TTP men opened fire on them. Two other girls also sustained gunshot wounds.

Five years ago, Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin co-founded the Malala Fund to bring awareness to the social and economic impact of girls’ education worldwide.

On December 10, 2014, Yousafzai received Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Indian children’s rights and education advocate Kailash Satyarthi.

In March this year, Malala returned to Pakistan for the first time after attack and visited her hometown Swat under tight security.