Malala Yousafzai: Malala Day will honour shot girl

A GLOBAL day to call for the education of all girls and women is to be held in honour of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taleban, it has been announced.

Her father, Ziauddin, and former prime minister Gordon Brown outlined plans for Malala Day as they appeared at the Women of the World Festival in London yesterday, International Women’s Day.

Mr Brown said the issue of universal education for girls was in desperate need of a “liberation movement and a freedom fight for change”.

Malala Day will be on the girl’s 16th birthday, 12 July, and celebrated with a youth assembly at the United Nations in New York. It is hoped young people from across the world will mark the day, aimed at providing education for the 32 million girls who do not currently have access.