Britons call on govt to nominate Malala for Nobel

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Britons call on govt to nominate Malala for Nobel

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Thousands of Britons called on government to nominate Malala Yousufzai for the Nobel Peace Prize.

09 November,2012 07:00 am

Tens of thousands of Britons called on the government on Friday to nominate Malala Yousufzai, a Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls education, for the Nobel Peace Prize.The 15-year-old is receiving specialist treatment in the English city of Birmingham after gunmen shot her on Oct. 9 for standing up against the Taliban and openly advocating education for women.The attack has drawn widespread international condemnation and Yousufzai has become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Talibans attempts to suppress womens 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.Malala doesnt 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 womens rights advocates to nominate her for the prize. Similar campaigns have sprung up in Canada, France and Spain.Under the Nobel Committees rules, only prominent figures such as members of national assemblies and governments are able to make nominations.