I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3583 
To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under 
the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 21, 2013 
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Ms. GRANGER, and Mrs. LOWEY) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani 
women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship 
Program. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Malala Yousafzai 
Scholarship Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
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(1) On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala 
Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen 
in Pakistan on her way home from school. 
(2) When Malala was 11 years old, she bravely 
stood up to the Taliban and wrote a secret blog doc-
umenting their crackdown on women’s rights and 
education in 2009. 
(3) Malala’s advocacy for women’s education 
made her a target of the Taliban. 
(4) The Taliban called Malala’s efforts to high-
light the need for women’s education an ‘‘obscenity’’. 
(5) On July 12, 2013, Malala celebrated her 
16th birthday by delivering a speech before the 
United Nations General Assembly in which she said, 
‘‘So let 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. 
One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can 
change the world. Education is the only solution.’’. 
(6) According to the United Nation’s 2012 
Education for All Global Monitoring Report, ‘‘Paki-
stan has the second largest number of children out 
of school [in the world]’’ and ‘‘nearly half of rural 
females have never been to school.’’. 
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(7) According to a Council on Foreign Rela-
tions report titled ‘‘What Works in Girls’ Edu-
cation’’, ‘‘A 100-country study by the World Bank 
shows that increasing the share of women with a 
secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per 
capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.’’. 
(8) According to the World Bank, ‘‘The benefits 
of women’s education go beyond higher productivity 
for 50 percent of the population. More educated 
women also tend to be healthier, participate more in 
the formal labor market, earn more income, have 
fewer children, and provide better health care and 
education to their children, all of which eventually 
improve the well-being of all individuals and lift 
households out of poverty. These benefits also trans-
mit across generations, as well as to their commu-
nities at large.’’. 
(9) According to United Nation’s 2012 Edu-
cation For All Global Monitoring Report, ‘‘education 
can make a big difference to women’s earnings. In 
Pakistan, women with a high level of literacy earned 
95 percent more than women with no literacy 
skills.’’. 
(10) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hil-
lary Rodham Clinton stated, ‘‘We will open the 
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doors of education to all citizens, but especially to 
girls and women . . . We are doing all of these 
things because we have seen that when women and 
girls have the tools to stay healthy and the oppor-
tunity to contribute to their families’ well-being, they 
flourish and so do the people around them.’’. 
(11) The United States provides critical foreign 
assistance to Pakistan’s education sector to improve 
access to and the quality of basic and higher edu-
cation. 
(12) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship 
Program administered by the United States Agency 
for International Development awards scholarships 
to academically talented, financially needy Pakistani 
students from remote regions of the country to pur-
sue bachelor’s or master’s degrees at participating 
Pakistani universities. 
(13) Fifty percent of the 974 Merit and Needs- 
Based Scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2013 
were awarded to Pakistani women. Historically, only 
25 percent of such scholarships have been awarded 
to women. 
(14) The United Nations declared July 12 as 
‘‘Malala Day’’—a global day of support for and rec-
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ognition of Malala’s bravery and courage in pro-
moting women’s education. 
(15) On December 10, 2012, the United Na-
tions and the Government of Pakistan launched the 
‘‘Malala Fund for Girls’ Education’’ to improve 
girls’ access to education worldwide, with Pakistan 
donating the first $10,000,000 to the Fund. 
(16) More than 1,000,000 people around the 
world have signed the United Nations Special Envoy 
for Global Education petition calling on the Govern-
ment of Pakistan to enroll every boy and girl in pri-
mary school. 
(17) Pakistani civil society organizations col-
lected almost 2,000,000 signatures from Pakistanis 
on a petition dedicated to Malala’s cause of edu-
cation for all. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) every individual should have the opportunity 
to pursue an education; 
(2) every individual, regardless of gender, 
should have the opportunity to pursue an education 
without fear of discrimination; and 
(3) educational exchanges promote institutional 
linkages between the United States and Pakistan. 
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(b) CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL INITIA-
TIVES IN PAKISTAN.—Congress encourages the Depart-
ment of State and the United States Agency for Inter-
national Development to continue their support for initia-
tives led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani 
civil society that promote education in Pakistan, especially 
education for women. 
SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) EXPANSION.—Using funding made available 
under section 6, the Administrator of the United States 
Agency for International Development (referred to in this 
Act as the ‘‘USAID Administrator’’) shall increase the 
number of scholarships to women under the Merit and 
Needs-Based Scholarship Program (referred to in this Act 
as the ‘‘Program’’) during each of the calendar years 2013 
through 2015 over the level awarded to women in calendar 
year 2011. 
(b) LIMITATIONS.— 
(1) CRITERIA.—The additional scholarships 
available under subsection (a) may only be awarded 
in accordance with other scholarship eligibility cri-
teria already established by USAID. 
(2) ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES.—Additional schol-
arships authorized under subsection (a) shall be 
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awarded for a range of disciplines to improve the 
employability of graduates and to meet the needs of 
the scholarship recipients. 
(3) OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS.—The USAID Ad-
ministrator shall make every effort to award 50 per-
cent of the scholarships available under the Program 
to Pakistani women. 
SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The USAID Administrator shall 
designate appropriate USAID officials to brief the appro-
priate congressional committees, not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 
thereafter for the next 3 years, on the implementation of 
section 4. 
(b) CONTENTS.—The briefing described in subsection 
(a) shall include, among other relevant information, for 
the most recently concluded fiscal year— 
(1) the total number of scholarships that were 
awarded through the Program, including a break-
down by gender; 
(2) the disciplines of study chosen by the schol-
arship recipients; 
(3) the percentage of the scholarships that were 
awarded to students seeking a bachelor’s degree or 
a master’s degree, respectively; and 
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(4) the percentage of scholarship recipients that 
voluntarily dropped out of school or were involun-
tarily pushed out of the program for failure to meet 
program requirements. 
SEC. 6. FUNDING. 
Of the amounts authorized to be appropriated for fis-
cal year 2014 pursuant to title I of the Enhanced Partner-
ship with Pakistan Act of 2009 (22 U.S.C. 8411 et seq.), 
$3,000,000 shall be made available for scholarships au-
thorized under section 4(a). 
Æ 
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