Malala Makes Impassioned Plea for Child Education In a speech accepting the EU's top human rights award, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has urged the 28-nation bloc to better help the millions of children who are denied a formal education. At the age of 16, Malala confidently addressed the packed legislature Wednesday, demanding that leaders do more to provide these children with "a book and a pen" and better protect the many girls who face violence for seeking them. Malala was wounded during a Taliban assassination attempt in Pakistan last year because of her outspoken objection to an interpretation of Islam that keeps women at home and bars girls from school. After the applause died down at the European Parliament and Malala received her Sakharov Prize, European Parliament President Martin Schulz thanked her for "an extraordinary moment."