Friday, November 9, 2012

World observes ‘Malala Day’ today

The world will commemorate November 10 as ‘Malala Day’ in the honour of Pakistani child activist Malala Yousafzai, from this year as the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced this move on Friday. Events are expected to take place around the world on Saturday to mark one month since Malala was shot. The date November 10 has been chosen to celebrate Malala Day as it marks the 30-day anniversary of the Taliban attack on the 15-year-old education campaigner from Pakistan. The Express Tribune quoted Ban Ki-moon, as saying that Malala Yousafzai is an inspiration for girls’ education the world over. Ban Ki-moon hoped that observing Malala day will build on the momentum of UN's Education First initiative and show that education is a right of everyone, and not a privilege for a few. He also said citizens from across the globe are speaking out for Yousafzai and on behalf of the 61 million children who do not go to school.

Malala spurs school-for-all vow, now deliver

By Gordon Brown, Special for CNN
Gordon Brown served as Britain's prime minister between 2007 and 2010 after a decade as the country's finance minister, or chancellor of the Exchequer. In July this year he was appointed as a United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Pakistan has a new heroine and a new cause -- a girl's right to education -- and after Friday's announcements from the Pakistani government that they will adopt new measures to get every child into school by end 2015, that cause has a timetable and a deadline for delivery. Everywhere you go in Pakistan you find people talking animatedly about the 15-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban last month.A rickshaw touring the streets of Islamabad has a slogan posted on it: "Malala for education and peace." Go to the local girls' school and every girl seems to have written either a poem or a song, a letter or a card to Malala. Listen to the politicians and every speech is laced with references to the courage of Malala. Meet civil society organizations and they will tell you that the audience for their educational demands has risen markedly over the last few weeks. It seems that Malala's courage has awoken Pakistan's silent majority who are no longer prepared to tolerate the threats and intimidations of the Pakistan Taliban. Can Pakistan convert its momentary desire to speak out in support of Malala into a long term commitment to getting its three million girls and five million children into school? Can the politicians, long-criticized for a failure to deliver, find the teachers, the classrooms and the reading materials to give millions of children a basic education? This is what I talked about with Pakistan's leaders. Meeting President Asif Ali Zardari, and in front of a 500-strong audience, many of them from the Swat Valley where Malala was shot, I presented petitions already signed by more than one million people in the international community in honor of Malala and her cause. These signatures were complemented with another one million signatures collected by Pakistani civil society's One Million Signature Campaign to demand free and compulsory education. Another 100,000 signatures from out-of-school Pakistani children are the start of yet another one million-strong petition, this time from the children themselves demanding their right to school.Can Pakistan convert its momentary desire to speak out in support of Malala into a long term commitment to getting its three million girls and five million children into school? Can the politicians, long-criticized for a failure to deliver, find the teachers, the classrooms and the reading materials to give millions of children a basic education? This is what I talked about with Pakistan's leaders. Meeting President Asif Ali Zardari, and in front of a 500-strong audience, many of them from the Swat Valley where Malala was shot, I presented petitions already signed by more than one million people in the international community in honor of Malala and her cause. These signatures were complemented with another one million signatures collected by Pakistani civil society's One Million Signature Campaign to demand free and compulsory education. Another 100,000 signatures from out-of-school Pakistani children are the start of yet another one million-strong petition, this time from the children themselves demanding their right to school.The president and I agreed on a series of deadlines in a plan to ensure all of Pakistan's five million out-of-school children have the opportunity to go to school. Pakistan on Friday asked to join the Accelerated Millennium Development Goal Framework process that will allow the country to assess its current education plans, strategies and obstacles to delivery in consultation with international organizations and then work together to contribute to Pakistan's dream of education for all. A deadline for the final draft of this accelerated plan is set for April 2013 when the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President of the World Bank Jim Kim and myself, alongside the heads of major international agencies such as UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and the Global Partnership for Education, will meet in Washington with the Ministers of Education and Finance of Pakistan. The aim is to match international and domestic support for realizing the 2015 goal.Five months of intensive in-country work with the Pakistan government, civil authorities and foundations, as well as international organizations, lie ahead to ensure a detailed, budgeted plan. I have suggested to the president that he consider involving all educational groups from civil society interested in achieving the universal goal in the processes. Today there is new hope for the three million girls denied their right to schooling and a new chance to ensure the right to education for all. Pakistan and the international community are united in their goals. We now must deliver. But a more active, more engaged and more determined Pakistani people can ensure that education for all is no longer a slogan but a reality.

Obama on fiscal cliff: ‘Our job now is to get a majority in Congress to reflect the will of the American people’

Obama cries while thanking staff

Bangladesh asks Pakistan to apologise for 1971 genocide

Bangladesh on Friday demanded a formal apology from Pakistan for the genocide committed by its troops during the 1971 liberation war, but Islamabad said it's time to carry forward ties "burying the past". During a meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said "Bangladesh expects an apology from Pakistan for the genocide carried out by their troops in 1971". He said Moni also underscored the need for resolving the other outstanding issues with Pakistan, foreign secretary Mijarul Quayes quoted the minister as saying. In response, Quayes said, the Pakistani foreign minister said since 1974 Islamabad "at different times and different manners expressed its regret for the 1971 incidents". "She (Khar) said it is now the time to proceed forward burying the past." Quayes's comments came as Moni told a private news agency yesterday that Pakistan must apologise for the mass killings. Khar, the first Pakistani minister to visit Dhaka since the ruling Awami League assumed office three years ago, arrived here on a five-hour tour to invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the Developing-8 Summit to be held in Islamabad on November 22. Khar later called on Hasina and handed over an invitation letter from Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari at her Ganabhaban official residence. She is also expected to meet main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief and ex-premier Khaleda Zia ahead of her departure. Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan until 1971 when it won its independence after a nine-month long liberation war against Pakistani troops. The incumbent government has been demanding Islamabad's official apology for the Pakistani troops' atrocities during the liberation war.

Nobel Peace prize petition for shot Pakistani schoolgirl

Thousands of people joined a campaign on Friday calling for 15-year-old Taliban shooting victim Malala Yousufzai to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The schoolgirl thanked her supporters as she recovers in a British hospital. A campaign calling for the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize garnered support from thousands of people on Friday. More than 30,000 people have signed a petition in Britain as part of a global push by women's rights advocates calling for the government to nominate Malala Yousufzai her for the prestigious prize. The 15-year-old, who thanked well wishers for their support on Friday, is receiving specialist treatment in the English city of Birmingham after gunmen shot her on October 9th for standing up to the Taliban and openly advocating education for women. The attack drew widespread international condemnation, and Yousufzai has subsequently become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s attempts to suppress women’s rights. On Friday, a campaign led by Pakistani-Britain Shahida Choudhary urged Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior government officials to nominate Yousufzai for the prestigious prize. “Malala doesn’t just represent one young woman, she speaks out for all those who are denied an education purely on the basis of their gender,” campaign leader Choudhary said in a statement issued by global petition platform Change.org. Global campaign of support Similar campaigns have sprung up in Canada, France and Spain. Under the Nobel Committee’s rules, only prominent figures such as members of national assemblies and governments are able to make nominations. Yousufzai was unconscious and fighting for her life when she was flown to Britain a month ago, but the hospital in Birmingham where she is being treated now report that she is recovering well. Malala’s father thanked her supporters from around the world on Friday, just one month on from the shocking attack. "She wants me to tell everyone how grateful she is and is amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her well-being," her father Ziauddin Yousafzai said on behalf of the 15-year-old. "We deeply feel the heart-touching good wishes of the people across the world of all caste, colour and creed," he said in a statement issued by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where Malala is being treated. Her father added: "I am awfully thankful to all the peace-loving well-wishers who strongly condemn the assassination attempt on Malala, who pray for her health and support the grand cause of peace, education, freedom of thought and freedom of expression." The hospital on Friday published photos of Malala sitting and reading a book, while others showed her poring over get-well cards.

ThePashto.com: An English-Pashto online dictionary

Here’s a treat for all those you have been yearning to learn the Pashto language: ThePashto.com, an online dictionary which helps you translate from Pashto to English and English to Pashto. According to a report by ProPakistani, the dictionary currently has more than 15,000 words along with grammatical descriptions of the words, and has the option of users registering themselves to help add more words. When typing a word in the search bar, a dropbox appears giving suggestions of words closer to the one you are typing. After translating a word from Pashto to English, a bar appears at the bottom giving more similar words to search for. On clicking a word in Pashto after the translation is done, it presents users with more meanings of the word. The website is lightweight and quick to use, and does not require users to download the Pashto font as it uses a phonetic keyboard. What the website can possible add is pronunciations of the words as well as their use in sentences and a virtual keyboard that can assist in typing Pashto words.

Pakistan's minority Hindus feel under attack

Associated Press
They came after dusk and chanted into the night sky "Kill the Hindus, kill the children of the Hindus," as they smashed religious icons, ripped golden bangles off women's arms and flashed pistols. It wasn't the first time that the Hindu temple on the outskirts of Pakistan's largest city was attacked, and residents here fear it will not be the last. "People don't consider us as equal citizens. They beat us whenever they want," said Mol Chand, one of the teenage boys gathered at the temple. "We have no place to worship now." It was the second time the Sri Krishna Ram temple has been attacked, and this time the mob didn't even bother to disguise their faces. The small temple, surrounded by a stone wall, is a tiny religious outpost in a dusty, hardscrabble neighborhood so far on the outskirts of the city that a sign on the main road wishes people leaving Karachi a good journey. Local Muslim residents blamed people from a nearby ethnic Pashtun village for the attack, which took place in late September on the Day of Love for the Prophet, a national holiday declared by the government in response to an anti-Islam film made in the U.S. No one was seriously injured in the attack. It was the latest in a rising tide of violence and discrimination against Hindus in this 95 percent Muslim country, where Islamic extremism is growing. Pakistan's Hindu community says it faces forced conversions of Hindu girls to Islam, a lack of legal recognition for their marriages, discrimination in services and physical abuse when they venture into the streets. The story of the Hindu population in Pakistan is one of long decline. During partition in 1947, the violent separation of Pakistan and India into separate countries, hundreds of thousands of Hindus opted to migrate to India where Hinduism is the dominant religion. Those that remained and their descendants now make up a tiny fraction of Pakistan's estimated 190 million citizens, and are mostly concentrated in Sindh province in the southern part of the country. Signs of their former stature abound in Karachi, the capital of Sindh. At the 150-year-old Swami Narayan Temple along one of the city's main roads, thousands of Hindus gather during the year to celebrate major religious holidays. Hindus at the 200-year-old Laxmi Narain Temple scatter the ashes of their cremated loved ones in the waters of an inlet from the Arabian Ocean. But there are also signs of how far the community has fallen. Residents in a city hungry for land have begun to build over Hindu cemeteries, the community's leaders say. Hindus helped build Karachi's port decades ago, but none work there now. Estimates of the size of the Hindu population in Pakistan are all over the map — from 2.5 million or 10 million in Sindh province alone to 7 million across the country — a reflection of the fact that the country hasn't had a census since 1998. It isn't just Hindus who are facing problems. Other minorities like Christians, the mystical Muslim branch of Sufis and the Ahmadi sect have found themselves under attack in Pakistan, where the rise of Muslim fundamentalists has sometimes unleashed a violent opposition against those who don't follow their strict religious tenets. The discrimination has prompted some Hindus to leave for India, activists warn, though the extent is not known. Around 3,000 Hindus left this year, part of a migration that began four years ago, sparked by discrimination and a general rise in crime in Sindh, said DM Maharaj, who heads an organization to help Hindus called Pakistan Hindu Sabha. He said he recently talked to a group of Hindus preparing to move to India from rural Sindh, complaining that they can't eat in Muslim restaurants or that Muslim officials turned them down for farming loans. Even during recent floods, they said Muslims did not want them staying in the same refugee camps. Other Hindu figures such as provincial assembly member Pitamber Sewami deny there's a migration at all, in a reflection of how sensitive the issue is. Earlier this year, there were a string of reports in Pakistani media about Hindus leaving the country, sparking a flurry of promises by Pakistani officials to investigate. In India, a Home office official said the Indian government noticed an upward trend of people coming from Pakistan but called reports of Pakistanis fleeing to India "exaggerated." He said he does not have exact figures on how many Pakistani Hindus have stayed in India after entering the country on tourist visas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic. There's more of a consensus of the seriousness of the problem of forced conversion of Hindus. Zohra Yusuf, the president of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says the pattern goes like this: A Hindu girl goes missing and then resurfaces days or weeks later married to a Muslim boy. During court hearings to determine whether the conversion was voluntary, students from nearby Islamic schools called madrassas often flood the room, trying to intimidate the judges by chanting demands that the conversion be confirmed. Maharaj says he's tried to intervene in roughly 100 cases of forced conversions but has only succeeded in returning a girl safely back to her family once. If a girl decides to renounce Islam and return to Hinduism, she could be signing a death warrant for herself and her family even if her conversion was forced. The Hindu community has also been hurt by a lack of unity within its ranks. Hindu society within Pakistan and elsewhere has historically been divided by caste, a system of social stratification in which the lower castes are often seen as inferior. Members of the lower castes in Pakistan say it wasn't until two girls from a high-caste family were forcibly converted this year that high-caste Hindus took the issue seriously, although it's been happening for years. "We always fight our war ourselves," said Bholoo Devjee, a Hindu activist from Karachi, speaking about the lower castes. In recent months the government has begun to take the concerns of the Hindu community more seriously. In Sindh province, legislators proposed a law to prevent forced conversions in part by implementing a waiting period before a marriage between a Hindu and a Muslim can go forward, and there's discussion about proposing such a law on the national level as well. In the case of the Sri Krishna Ram temple, law enforcement authorities opened a blasphemy case against the people who rampaged through the building. But residents here are skeptical that these developments signify any long-term improvement in their plight. Weeks after the incident no arrests have been made, and the Hindus complain that no high-ranking Hindu officials have come to visit them or help them get compensation. Sunda Maharaj, the spiritual leader at the temple, which was first attacked in January 2011, said he and the other residents do not want to move to India. "We are Pakistani," he said. But he would like more help from the government, specifically a checkpoint to stop people from getting close to the temple and money for the Hindus to buy weapons. "Next time anyone comes we can kill them or die defending our temple," he said.

Malala status updates Friday 9 November 2012

Malala’s condition today was described as comfortable and stable. She continues to make progress with her treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Birmingham Council House will be open from 10:00 until 14:00 on Saturday 10 November to allow people to leave messages for Malala on what has been designated Malala Day. Anyone wishing to sign the book should go to: Birmingham Council House Victoria Square Birmingham B1 1BB

Malala Yousafzai: Call for Nobel Peace Prize award

There are calls for Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a gun attack by the Taliban, to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tens of thousands of people across the world have signed online petitions saying she deserves to be recognised. Malala was shot after she campaigned for girls' education in Pakistan. After the attack she was flown to a hospital in Birmingham for treatment and doctors there say she stands every chance of making a good recovery. Thanks Malala's father says the teenager wants to thank well-wishers for the thousands of goodwill messages from around the world. Mr Yousafzai said: "She wants me to tell everyone how grateful she is and is amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her well-being." Events are expected to take place around the world on Saturday to mark one month since Malala was shot. Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is given every year to a person who's judged to have made the biggest contribution to promoting peace. Past winners include American president Barack Obama, former head of the United Nations Kofi Annan, and the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela.

Malala grateful for global support

Malala, the teenager being treated in Britain for gunshot wounds inflicted by the Taliban in Pakistan, on Friday thanked her global supporters, one month on from the brutal attack. "She wants me to tell everyone how grateful she is and is amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her well-being," said her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, on behalf of the 15-year-old. "We deeply feel the heart-touching good wishes of the people across the world of all caste, colour and creed," he said in a statement issued by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where Malala is being treated. Her father added: "I am awfully thankful to all the peace-loving well-wishers who strongly condemn the assassination attempt on Malala, who pray for her health and support the grand cause of peace, education, freedom of thought and freedom of expression." The hospital on Friday published photos of Malala sitting and reading a book, while others showed her poring over get-well cards. Armed men in Mingora, the main town in the Swat valley (northwest Pakistan), shot Malala in the head and shoulder on October 9 after stopping the school bus on which she was travelling. The attack was claimed by the insurgent Taliban Movement of Pakistan (TTP), allied to Al-Qaeda. They claimed to have targeted Malala because of her "pioneering role" in calling for girls' education, and because of her general criticism of the Taliban. The teenager was transferred on October 15 to the central England hospital, which specializes in the treating British soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

November 10 to be celebrated as Malala Day: UN

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that November 10, 2012, will be celebrated as Malala Day the world over, as it marks the 30-day anniversary of the Taliban attack on the 15-year-old education campaigner from Pakistan. The Express Tribune quoted Ki-Moon, as saying that Malala is an inspiration for girls education the world over. On Friday, the UN special envoy for global education will visit Pakistan and present President Asif Ali Zardari with a petition signed by over one million people asking that he make girls education a reality in Pakistan. Ki-Moon hoped that observing Malala day will build on the momentum of UN’s Education First initiative and show that education is a right of everyone, and not a privilege for a few. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had shot Malala in the head and neck while she was returning home from on October 9. She was attacked for speaking up against the Taliban and advocating girls’ education. She is now recuperating at a hospital in Birmngham, UK, and is said to be making good progress.

Classmate Injured in Attack Offers Prayers for Malala

A classmate of Malala Yousafzai, who was also injured in the attack on the girls' rights activist, says she's still afraid to leave her house, prays for Malala to come home, and thought her arm "had been blown off" during the attack. Kainat Riaz, 15, spoke to ABC News from her home in the Swat valley, an area of northern Pakistan that was home to a Taliban insurgency four years ago. Riaz was riding in the same school bus as Yousafzai and others nearly a month ago, when a lone gunmen boarded and demanded to see Malala. "We were coming back from school," the young girl says. "I was discussing my paper with a friend and suddenly found a man on the ledge of the van." "When he fired, Malala immediately fell," she recalls. "She was hit in the head and lost a lot of blood. We thought she wouldn't survive… We just looked at Malala and cried. "Then he fired at Shazia (another classmate) and then I got hit. I thought my hand had been blown off. It got numb. When I came home, I found out what happened and then went to the hospital." To speak with Riaz, ABC News travelled through a series of narrow streets and alleys in Mingora, the capital of Swat district, until reaching her home, a small two-bedroom bungalow which is now permanently guarded by two full-time, armed policemen. Her female relatives sat in another room while Riaz, wearing glasses, a headscarf, and a traditional Pakistani shalwar khameez, spoke openly about the night of the attack – and beyond.In a possible indication of the security threats that still surround her, an armed police guard remained at her side during the entire interview. While other media reports have suggested Riaz returned to her school to resume her studies, she emphatically told ABC that is not the case. She says she only returned once to the school for a "change of scenery." The situation, she says, still isn't safe, though she hopes it will soon change. "God willing I will definitely go back to school," she says, offering a hint of the resilience that has made the girls national heroes in Pakistan. The attack hit a raw nerve in Pakistan, drawing widespread condemnation from all sectors of Pakistani society, including a rare public statement and visit to the hospital by Pakistan's reclusive army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Ordinary Pakistani citizens began holding demonstrations, while "We are all Malala" became a rallying cry in a country where millions of young girls are still denied access to an education. Before the attack, Yousafzai had become an icon of hope. When the Taliban swept through the Swat valley beginning in 2008, she write a diary for BBC's Pashto service under a pseudonym, chronicling her desire to stay in school even after the Taliban had demanded all girls' schools be closed. Even after the Taliban, who demolished several girls' schools and flogged women in public, were eventually routed by the Pakistani military, Yousafzai continued to speak out. At just 11 years old, she would often appear on Pakistani media outlets, encouraging other young girls to pursue an education. Through it all, she and her family continued to defy death threats from the Taliban. In the end, by being attacked, Yousafzai and her classmates have done something no other leader – whether civilian or military – has been able to do: They've united the overwhelming majority of the country against the Taliban's extremism.A lot of people have learned that girls' education is very important," Riaz says of the incident's aftermath and the outpouring of media coverage. "Malala almost sacrificed her life for it. Many girls who weren't studying are studying now." The case has even drawn high-profile international support from unlikely quarters. Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who serves as a goodwill ambassador to the UN, wrote an oped declaring "We are Malala," and pop superstar Madonna recently dedicated a concert to the young girl.Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Education, has taken up Yousafzai's cause, starting a global movement pushing for girls to have free and unfettered access to education. A petition he initiated reportedly has more than a million signatures. He plans to visit Pakistan on Saturday – which he's dubbed world "Malala" day to present the petition to Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, in person. All of this – the outpouring of support, the media coverage, the potential to change millions of lives – doesn't phase Riaz, who speaks in a confident tone. Though her wounds haven't fully healed – she still has fevers and migraines at night – her thoughts remain focused on one thing. Her friend Malala. "There is no one like Malala," she says, flashing the tiniest hint of a smile. "She was a different kind of girl." It seems, the world would agree.

Taking Bold Steps to Turn Malala's Vision Into Action

A vast outpouring of global support for Malala Yousafzai will happen on Saturday when the world comes together to back her cause for a girl's right to go to school. From the rickshaw on the streets of Islamabad with a poster featuring Malala's face simply stating, "Peace and Education," to a message from the United Nations Secretary-General and petitions of over one million names being submitted in nearly 100 countries on every continent, the world is coming together with the people of Pakistan with one simple message: Every girl and boy should go to school. School children, teachers and parents are going global with this message, holding vigils and rallies, handing in petitions, and holding governments accountable for the right to education. Media companies, newspaper and radio stations are broadcasting the message. From the likes of Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie and David Beckham to Lewis Hamilton, Usher and Heidi Klum, celebrities have also joined in speaking out for Malala, including tweeting, Facebook posts, blogs and wearing "I am Malala" t-shirts and headbands. Over the next several days, I will visit Pakistan to commemorate Malala Day on November 10th, one month following the tragic shooting of a young girl simply for wanting to go to school. I will meet with President Zardari and Ministers in the Pakistani government and visit schools during my stay to meet those very children whose families struggle each day to make sure they have the opportunity to go to school and learn. During my stay, I will hand over petitions signed by over one-million people from across the globe to the president. At the same time, news is pouring into my office from civil society groups on every continent saying that they too will commemorate Malala Day and turn in petitions in the capitals of their countries. I encourage everyone to do something on this day to show their support for Malala by delivering the petition, holding vigils and events, wearing T-shirts and spreading the word on social media. As the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, I will ask President Zardari to work with the international community, including the United Nations agencies, the Global Partnership for Education, World Bank, donor countries, NGOs and civil society -- alongside Pakistani citizens, teachers, parents, foundations and children, to achieve what Pakistan itself has declared to be its aim: universal education. I will ask him to take measures aimed at fast-tracking and accelerating progress to overcome the bottlenecks keeping millions of girls and boys out of school. Through an accelerated process to achieve the Millennium Development Goal for education and ensure all children, particularly girls, have quality schooling, Pakistan will take a bold step in providing opportunity and peace for its future generations. Making a quality education a reality for every child requires us to tackle difficult challenges head on as there are formidable barriers to overcome. But the good news is that there is no technological or scientific barrier to universal education. All we need is a collective determination to achieve our aim. The best news of all is that Malala is recovering -- and her recovery will continue to motivate millions to join the fight for the right of every girl and boy to go to school free of fear.

Thousands call for Nobel peace prize for Malala Yousafzai

Politicians urged to back nomination of 15-year-old girl shot by Taliban while campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan
Thousands of people have called for a Nobel peace prize for Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old who was shot by the Taliban while campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan. Malala has the support of more than 60,000 people backing a petition to nominate her for the prestigious award. The call came ahead of Saturday's global day of action marking one month since Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban. In the UK, Shahida Choudhary is campaigning for the prime minister and prominent politicians to write to the Nobel committee to recommend Malala. Choudhary said: "Malala doesn't just represent one young woman, she speaks out for all those who are denied an education purely on the basis of their gender. "There are girls like Malala in the UK and across the world. I was one of them. "I started this petition because a Nobel peace prize for Malala will send a clear message that the world is watching and will support those who stand up for the right of girls to get an education." Choudhary was taken out of school in the UK aged 16 and forced into a marriage in Pakistan. She escaped back to the UK, returned to education aged 28, and runs a network in Birmingham to support women in similar situations. Malala, was attacked last month with two other girls while travelling home from school in the Swat Valley. The gunman who boarded the van in which she was travelling asked for her by name before firing three shots at her. In early 2009, Malala wrote an anonymous blog about life under the Taliban, who had banned all girls in her area from attending school. The global petition to have Malala nominated, on Change.org, was started in Canada by Tarek Fatah, a writer and broadcaster. Malala's nomination has won the backing of Canada's four largest political parties and has been supported in other countries including France and Spain. Nobel committee rules states that members of national assemblies and governments are able to make nominations for the prize. Nominations close in February.