Imagine This: You’re a 15-year-old Pakistani girl who wants to go to school, but the Taliban opposes the education of girls and they have already destroyed many schools. So what do you do?

Who: You’re Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani girl

What: You’re shot three times in the head and neck by a Taliban gunman.

Where: Pakistan

When: October 9, 2012

This is the inspiring story of 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai who headed a campaign in Pakistan to help girls gain access to education.

You have already been an activist for several years. At age 11, you worked as an anonymous blogger for the BBC to advocate freedom of education and expose information about your Taliban-ruled area of Pakistan.

And since then, you have headed a campaign in Pakistan to help girls gain access to education.

On October 9 you’re shot in the head three times by a Taliban gunman on your school bus on your way home from school. You’re in critical condition and are airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.

In response to your extraordinary courage, people all over the world are calling for you to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Today there is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the assassination attempt by the Taliban did not scare young girls away from going to school. Instead, the shooting has galvanized support for the rights of women and girls in regions where the Taliban is established, and new schools are being planned for poor children in sixteen areas. Thanks to Malala, thousands more children, girls as well as boys, will receive the education they deserve.

The bad news is that even as Malala recovers from her injuries at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, there are new attacks being planned against her. One of these retaliatory groups is a new British-based Islamist group which will be issuing a religious decree against Malala

Thank you, Malala, for caring enough to make a difference!

Postscript: Bonnie Lloyd, a professor of sociology in Rochester, New York, has started a petition on Change.org asking Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice to nominate Malala for the Nobel Peace Prize. Stop by http://www.change.org/petitions/take-a-stand-for-the-girl-who-stood-up-nominate-malala-for-the-nobel-peace-prize to see Bonnie’s petition.

For More about Malala:

Something to Think about: How do you think Malala had the courage to take on such a powerful group as the Taliban?

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

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