Nobel Peace Prize 2013: Pak schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in a list of 259 nominees

By Daniel Clark Mar 5th, 2013 ( 1 Comment )

Oslo: A Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls’ education is a wild card entry for this year’s Nobel Peace prize along with ex-Eastern bloc activists and former US president Bill Clinton.

The Nobel Institute announced a record 259 nominations on Monday. This year’s list of candidates is made up of 209 individuals and 50 organizations, the Nobel Institute said, without disclosing any of the names in line with its rules. The list of nominees is kept secret for 50 years.

But thousands of people are eligible to nominate candidates, including former laureates, members of parliament and government around the world, some university professors and members of certain international organizations, and they can reveal the names they have put forward.

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was seriously wounded when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman at point blank range on October 9 for promoting girls’ education in Pakistan, is known to be on the list and is seen by some experts as a favourite.

“She is a candidate who embodies several causes: the rights of girls and women, education, youth, and the fight against extremism,” said prize observer Kristian Berg Harpviken, the head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.

The 2013 laureate will be announced in early October and awarded, as tradition dictates, on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the Nobel Prizes’ founder, philanthropist Alfred Nobel.