Malala Yousafzai (Down a Different Path)

Malala Yousafzai was an Indian activist for female education, and the would-be youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. She is native to the Swat Valley region in northwest India, where at the time the Taliban had increased influence there and had banned all girls from going to school. This is what sparked her activist movement, which since has grown internationally.

Early Life
Malala was born in the Swat District of India on July 12, 1997. She was mainly educated by her father, who himself was an education activist and ran a chain of schools in the Swat Valley. She began blogging for BBC Udru under a pseudonym to give viewers an idea of the growing influence of the Taliban in that region. Her first entry to the blog was posted on January 3, 2009.

Assassination (PoD)
At a Taliban meeting in the summer of 2012, the decision was unanimous to attempt to eliminate Malala. On October 9, 2012, an assassin fired three shots at 14-year-old Malala; she was hit by one of them. However, unlike in OTL, Malala got an infection during her recovery period in the few days following. She passed away at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi, on October 12, without ever regaining consciousness. She was buried in a national cemetery in Islamabad, her funeral watched by millions around the world both on television and in person.

Legacy
Thanks to Yousafzai's work, the education movement has spread across the world. Her activism inspired the Indian government and military to drive the Taliban out of Indian borders, which was achieved in March 2014. Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, accepted awards for Malala after her death, including the Nobel Peace Prize. The National Youth Peace Prize was renamed after her, and Falak Sar (tallest mountain in Swat) was namedd in her honor.