1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act . 2. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) In late 2008, Malala Yousafzai began making the case for access to education for women and girls despite objections from the Pakistani Taliban. On October 9, 2012, Malala was shot in the head by Pakistani Taliban on her way home from school. (2) In 2013, Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai co-founded the Malala Fund. The Malala Fund works to secure twelve years of free, safe, and quality education for all girls. Completion of a full twelve-year cycle of primary and secondary education ensures a pipeline of girls able to pursue higher education. (3) On July 12, 2013, Malala delivered a speech before the United Nations General Assembly calling for expanded access to education for women and girls across the globe. She said, [L]et us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty, and terrorism. Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are the most powerful weapons … Education is the only solution. . (4) On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education . (5) According to the United Nations 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report, more than 130 million girls worldwide are out of school. 15 million girls of primary-school age will never enter a classroom. As of 2016, at least 500 million adult women across the globe are illiterate. (6) According to the World Bank, Girls’ education is a strategic development priority. Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, … marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty. . (7) In 2015, all United Nations Member States, including the United