Thousands demand teenager is awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Tens of thousands of Britons called on the Government yesterday to nominate Malala Yousufzai for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Her attack has drawn widespread international condemnation and Yousufzai has become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s attempts to suppress women’s rights.

Yesterday, a campaign led by a Pakistani-British woman urged Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior government officials to nominate Yousufzai for the Nobel Peace 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 Shahida Choudhary said in a statement issued by global petition platform Change.org.

More than 30,000 people have signed the petition in Britain as part of a global push by women’s rights advocates to nominate her for the prize. 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.

Her father and other family members have flown to Birmingham, which has a large Pakistani diaspora, to oversee her recovery.

On October 26 her father said his daughter would “rise again” to pursue her dreams after hospital treatment.

Her shooting was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the young girl against one of Pakistan’s most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.

Fazlullah and his men have taken over Yusufzai’s native Swat Valley and have blown up girl schools and publicly executed those they deem immoral.

An army offensive in Swat has, however, forced many Taliban fighters to flee.

In October, the Nobel Peace Prize went to the European Union for promoting peace and democracy. (Reuters)