Malala Yousafzai — There’s no doubt that when a cowardly Taliban man pushed his way onto your school bus in Pakistan and shot you, an unarmed 15-year-old school girl, he never thought he’d be setting off a worldwide movement for more girls education.
No, he believed that with his bullet, he would be silencing your strong and persistent voice standing up against the Taliban terrorists, who wanted to end all education of girls in your country.
But his evil mission backfired. You survived, and as you recovered, you grew even more courageous and determined to spread the all-important message: that all children, girls and boys, have a God-given right to education and freedom of thought.
“The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born,” you told the United Nations in an address on July 12, 2013 — the day of your sixteenth birthday.
“Let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen, can change the world. Education is the only solution,” you told the United Nations.
Education first and education for all women. That has been your powerful and continuous mantra.
Globally, 66 million girls are being denied the right to an education today.
It is the absolutely perfect moment for you to have been awarded this great honor. Women’s rights of any kind, including the right to an education, are under assault by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and now by the barbaric terrorists ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
There’s nothing that these extremist groups who have subverted Islam like more than denying all rights to women. They completely devalue the female sex.
What they fear is the knowledge and empowerment that comes from education.
Multiple studies have shown that when girls are educated, incomes go up, infant mortality rates go down, rates of HIV/AIDS infections drop and educated mothers tend to educate their children.
All of society gets better when you educate girls.
But dark forces like the Taliban and ISIS don’t want to have educated girls or boys who can think freely, make their own decisions, and not blindly follow the orders of extremist leaders.
Thank you Malala, for your unwavering bravery in standing up as one girl, who is just 17 now, and leading a world movement for girls education against the forces of terror, intolerance and subjugation.
You deserved this recognition by the Nobel Peace Committee. By supporting you, they are also delivering a powerful message to the terrorists who have killed school girls and teachers and closed schools — you will NOT win!
Malala and girls education will triumph!
HollywoodLifers, do you agree that Malala was the best choice for the Nobel Peace Prize? Let me know.
— Bonnie Fuller
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