Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said on Friday that she was "honored" to have received the award. She shares it with Indian rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, who campaigns against child trafficking and labor.

"I'm feeling honored that I'm being chosen as a Nobel Laureate," she said, speaking from the English city of Birmingham, where she now lives after surviving an attempt on her life in October 2012. Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban when her calls for equal education rights angered militants in her Swat Valley homeland.

She is the first Pakistani and youngest person to be given the award. The 17-year-old dedicated her prize to the "voiceless."

"This award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard," she said. Yousafzai said she was in a chemistry lesson when she learned of her win.

"I was totally sure I hadn't won it, but then suddenly one of my teachers came to the class and she called me and she said, 'I have something important to tell you.'"

"I was totally surprised when she told me: 'Congratulations, you have won the Nobel Peace Prize, and you are sharing it with a great person who is also working for children's rights'."

'Normal school day'

Yousafzai finished her school day before giving her acceptance speech, explaining why the world had to wait seven hours to hear her response.

"I considered it as a normal school day. I'm really happy even though it's not going to help me in my tests and exams because it totally depends on my hard work," she said - an opportunity she wishes for every child.

"I still want to see every child going to school," Yousafzai told reporters.

"Through my story, I want to tell other children all around the world that they should stand up for their rights, not wait for someone else," she said.

She joined fellow recipient Satyarthi in appealing for the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers to come together and attend the prize ceremony in Oslo, in December.

Satyarthi, 60, gave up a career in engineering to spend his life fighting India's endemic child labor.

"I strongly feel that this is a big honor to hundreds of millions of the children who have been deprived of their childhood and freedom and education," he said following the announcement of his award.

"So it's a big challenge and this will help in our fight against child labor and child slavery globally, and particularly in my own country."

jr/mkg (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)