Birmingham, Oct. 10
The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi with the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, hoping the feel-good announcement would inspire both countries to join “in a common struggle for education and against extremism.” But the celebrations didn’t distract Pakistan and India enough to stop their ongoing exchange of fire across the Line of Control and Working Boundary that divide Kashmir between them. Malala and Satyarthi have invited their respective prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi, to the Nobel ceremony in December. Speaking to Newsweek after her win, Malala, the youngest ever Nobel laureate, said, “My message, for wherever it may reach, is love.” Let’s hope the message reaches both Sharif and Modi loud and clear.
From our Oct. 18-25, 2014, issue.