Nobel Peace Prize winners Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India hold their Nobel Peace Prize diplomas and medals during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, yesterday. Photo: Matt Dunham/AP

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban for refusing to leave school, and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi received their Nobel Peace Prizes yesterday after two days of celebration honouring their work for children’s rights. They were given a standing ovation.

Malala became by far the youngest laureate, widely praised for her global campaigning since she was shot in the head on her school bus in 2012 for asserting her right to an education.

Some groups in Pakistan, however, have accused her of being a puppet of the West and violating the tenets of conservative Islam. Saying that all children have a right to childhood and education instead of forced labour, Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said “this world conscience can find no better expression than through” this year’s winners.

In his speech to the gathering, Jagland related how Malala was shot and said Islamic extremist groups dislike knowledge because it is a condition for freedom.

“Attendance at school, especially by girls, deprives such forces of power,” he said.

He mentioned Satyarthi’s vision of ending child labour and how he abandoned a career as an electrical engineer in 1980 to fight for it.

This year’s award could help the Norwegian Nobel Committee repair its reputation, damaged by controversial awards in recent years to the European Union and US President Barack Obama.

“I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is not,” said Malala, 17, better known by her first name, which is also the title of her book and the name of her foundation.

“It is the story of many girls,” she said in Oslo’s ornate city hall on the anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel’s death.

Malala at the awards ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo. Photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

Although the focus was undoubtedly on Oslo on Wednesday, Nobel Prize winners in literature, chemistry, physics, medicine and economics were gathering in Stockholm, due to receive their prizes from the King of Sweden later in the day.

The award ceremonies are always held on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Satyarthi, 60, who is credited with saving around 80,000 children from slave labour sometimes in violent confrontations, kept a modest profile in Oslo and even conceded to being overshadowed by Malala surrounded by admirers.

“I’ve lost two of my colleagues,” Satyarthi said about his work. “Carrying the dead body of a colleague who was fighting for the protection of children is something I’ll never forget, even as I sit here to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Arriving in Norway with friends and young activists from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, Malala met thousands of children, walked the streets to greet supporters and was due to open an exhibition where her bloodstained dress, worn when her school bus was attacked, was put on display.

“She’s very brave and tough, fighting even after the Taliban shot her in the head,” said Andrea, 12, who was among thousands of children hoping to greet Malala in downtown Oslo.

“I am pretty certain that I am the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers,” Malala said. “I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that.”

Yousafzai said she hopes her prize will inspire young girls all over the world to fight for their rights and step forward to lead. She said the time is now for women to proclaim their rights and that “change is coming”. She felt the bond of a global sisterhood of sorts, with women gathering the strength to fight for equality. She said: “It’s their voice that I have been raising today.”