Pakistan, and people around the world, commemorated yesterday as “Malala Day”, in honor of Malala Yusufzai, who was shot in the head by a Taliban militant for demanding the right of girls’ education. UN special envoy Gordon Brown submitted a petition to Pakistani President Asaf Ali Zardari with nearly a million signatures from around the world urging free, universal, compulsory education.
There were rallies all over the country, including Karachi and Lahore. Reuters has a video report, and the clip of the girls chanting “I am Malala” is poignant.
Aljazeera English reports on a Pakistani girls’ school that is giving hope:
The Pakistani government announced that the country’s 3 million poorest families will receive government payments if they send their children to school. Many rural Pakistanis live on less than two dollars a day, and those families use their children as farm labor; the government is trying to replace the income lost if the child goes to school instead.
Another international petition is asking that Malala be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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