Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai receives Clinton’s Global Citizens award

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting education for girls, speaks after receiving the Leadership in Civil Society award at the Clinton Global Initiative's Citizen Awards Dinner, Sept. 25, 2013, in New York. (NEWSis/AP)

The Clinton Global Initiative presented its Global Citizens awards to a Pakistani teen activist shot by the Taliban, the founder of a Harlem nonprofit bakery and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, one of only seven recipients, nabbed the group’s “Leadership in Public Service” award for his three terms in City Hall.

In a press release announcing the winners, the group — founded by former President Clinton in 2005 — cited as highlights of the billionaire mayor’s tenure the city’s historic crime lows, “ambitious” public health strategies and education reform. Also being feted is 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was shot last year and nearly killed by the Taliban for championing education for girls.

Malala, from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, had been writing under a pen name about the difficulties her family faced in trying to secure her an education when the Taliban tracked her down and shot her in the head while she was riding a school bus. She not only survived the attack, but has continued advocating for universal education through her nonprofit Malala Fund.

She will receive the Clinton group’s “Leadership in Civil Society” award at the group’s gala on Wednesday. Bloomberg — who is scheduled to attend the ceremony at the Sheraton New York — is not the only New Yorker being singled out.

After speaking to attendees, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting education for girls, waves to the crowd after receiving the Leadership in Civil Society Award from Queen Rania of Jordan, left, at the Clinton Global Initiative's Citizen Awards Dinner, Sept. 25, 2013, in New York. (NEWSis/AP)