On the eve of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, nominee Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year old education activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year, told Christiane Amanpour that the award is “more than I deserve.”
“When I think of myself, I have a lot to do. So I think that it’s really an early age, and I would feel proud when I would work for education, when I would have done something, when I would be feeling confident to tell people, Yes! I have built that school, I have done that teachers’ training, I have sent that much children to school,” Malala said in an interview TVNewser attended at the 92nd Street Y Thursday. “Then if I get the Nobel Peace Prize, I will be saying, Yeah, I deserve it, somehow. Still, I need to work a lot. I need to work a lot. And I must work a lot.” (The Peace Prize was awarded to a chemical weapons watchdog group this morning.)
Amanpour’s interview capped off a media blitz for Malala, who was in New York to accept a U.N. Human Rights Award. In addition to interviews with Amanpour, PBS, the BBC and “The Daily Show,” Malala spoke with Diane Sawyer for an interview that airs tonight at 10pmET on “20/20.” The CNN special will air Sunday at 7pmET. (ABC promoted Sawyer’s interview as an exclusive, especially ironic because Amanpour serves as an anchor for both networks.)
Amanpour’s interview was in front of a sellout crowd, where the audience was required to have their bags checked and walk through metal detectors before entering the auditorium. Malala and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, were introduced by Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. They entered and exited the stage to a prolonged standing ovation.
“My brain is saved, my spinal cord is saved, everything is fine. I am alive. And I still can talk. I can smile. So I thank God for that,” Malala told Amanpour.