Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who defied Pakistani terrorists, and almost lost her life to defend freedom and women’s right to education, was interviewed by famed journalist and opinion moulder Christiane Amanpour this week. The full interview will be aired as a special report “The Bravest Girl in the World” on CNN this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

Yousafzai has become the global face of oppressed Pakistani and Asian women who are quietly mobilizing by the millions to fight for equal rights and universal secular education. Malala was shot in the head in a barbaric assassination attempt by Pakistani terrorists on October 9, 2012, while she was returning home from her school.

The brave teenager’s life was saved at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where she underwent intensive rehabilitation, that helped recover her mental faculties, her hearing and speech. The assassination attempt did not kill Malala, but only made her stronger.

She has redoubled her efforts since February this year to spread worldwide awareness on the inhuman treatment of women in Pakistan and West-Asia and the challenges they face to their dignity in daily life. On July 12, she spoke in front of the United Nations on the power of girl child education, and why pen is mightier than the sword. She has been feted with accolades, honors and awards across the globe including this year’s nomination for Nobel Peace Prize.

During the interview, Amanpour asked Malala whether she hoped to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala responded, “If I get the Nobel Peace Prize, I think it will be such a great honor, and more than I deserve, and such a great responsibility as well…It would help me to begin this campaign for girls’ education, but the real goal, the most precious goal that I want to get and for which I am thirsty and I want to struggle hard for, that is the award of seeing every child to go to school.”

She added, that being shot had only strengthened her resolve:

“They can only shoot a body, they cannot shoot my dreams…They shot me because they wanted to tell me that, ‘we want to kill you and to stop you campaigning’, but they did the biggest mistake: they inured me, and they told me through that attack, that even death is supporting me, even death does not want to kill me.”

And in a clear warning to Pakistan’s patriarchal society, she made her ambitious clear:

“I want to become a Prime Minister of Pakistan, and I think it’s really good. Because through politics I can serve my whole county. I can be the doctor of the whole country…I can spend much of the money from the budget on education…

International organizations and leaders have rallied to Malala’s clarion call for women’s freedom and education rights, and here is what Malala had to say at an event hosted by World Bank today:

As Malala’s heroic speeches and worldwide campaign for women gains steam, Pakistani terrorists are increasingly desperate to hold back human progress. The world is watching, but the world must also act – to help young girls like Malala, as they yearn to breathe free.

[image from youtube]