
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has joined more than 160,000 people worldwide in signing a petition to nominate Malala Yousafzai for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Malala is the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, for speaking out about the right of women and girls to go to school.
She's recovering in a hospital in Birmingham, England and is said to be doing well, although doctors say she'll eventually need more surgery.
Prime Minister Harper sent out a tweet saying he and his wife Laureen were proud to sign the petition.
Laureen and I are proud to sign the petition to nominate Malala Yousafzai for the Nobel Peace prize ow.ly/fu3Ex#Nobel4malala
— Stephen Harper (@pmharper) November 21, 2012
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae and Green party Leader Elizabeth May have all signed the petition as well.
If you'd like to sign it, click here.
Also, Canadian senator Salma Ataullahjan paid a visit to Malala's parents at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in the U.K.
Ataullahjan is originally from Pakistan. In fact, she's from the same town as Malala's family and speaks Pashto, one of the region's main languages.
She wasn't able to see Malala. But she met with Malala's mother Toorpekai and father Ziauddin in a private room for an hour and a half.
"They were so surprised," Ataullahjan told the Canadian Press.
"When the wife came in and we sat down, and I turned to her and spoke to her in our mother tongue, Pashto, she said, 'Oh, it's so nice to have someone speak to me in Pashto.'"
Ataullahjan had been speaking at a World Health Organization conference in Geneva, and made a personal decision to make a quick stop in England.
As well, one of Ataullahjan's adult daughters wrote a poem for Malala, which Ataullahjan read recently in the Senate.
"It's very emotional because I've always spoken to my children about our heritage, and how they should be proud of what they are... I gave that to him and he loved it," Ataullahjan said.
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