$1 million teacher prize goes to Sister Zeph. Her philosophy: 'Love is the language'

Pakistani teacher Riffat Arif, known as Sister Zeph, is the 2023 winner of the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize. She holds a trophy presented at a dinner in her honor in Paris. She says she faced bad treatment from her teachers at school and dreamed of "a teacher who gives equal respect and love to children with no difference. I could not find that teacher, so I will be that teacher." (Ludovic Marin /AFP via Getty Images)

As a student growing up in Pakistan, Riffat Arif, now known to all as Sister Zeph, faced insults and bad treatment from her teachers at school. She dreamed of "a teacher who gives equal respect and love to children with no difference. I could not find that teacher, so I will be that teacher."

So, in 1997, at the age of just 13, she founded a school in the courtyard of her home, free to all. Children were to be treated with love and respect; beatings were not allowed.