Taliban-targeted teen nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Pakistan's Malala Yousufzai, girls' rights champion who escaped assassination by Taliban death squad, nominated for top international honor
Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani advocate for girls' education, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, has been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize by three members of the Norwegian parliament from the ruling Labor Party.
She was nominated on Friday, which was the deadline for nominations.
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Yousufzai was shot in the head in October 2012 by Taliban gunmen who sought to silence her and stop her from "promoting Western thinking."
Hovering at death's door, Yousafzai underwent emergency skull reconstruction surgery meant to stabilize her, before she was airlifted to Britain, to receive specialized medical care and protection against further Taliban threats.
The attack drew widespread international condemnation and Yousufzai has become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Taliban's attempts to suppress women's rights.
Three months later, after what doctors called a miraculous recovery, she left the hospital.
Last week, in her first video statement since she was nearly killed, she said that she would keep fighting for women's rights.
On Friday, 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. Tens of thousands of Britons joined the call.
'I'll keep fighting.' Yousufzai (Photo: AP)
"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.
In October, the Nobel Peace Prize went to the European Union for promoting peace and democracy.
Reuters contributed to this report
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