This week could end with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to its youngest-ever recipient, 16-year old childrens’ education champion Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban exactly one year ago today (Wednesday, 9 October).  Now, the Taliban is threatening to try again.

From Pakistan, a Taliban spokesman said that it Taliban spokesman said that it “will be a pride for the Taliban if she is silenced.”

The cowards of the Pakistani Taliban could not silence her a year ago, but they sure tried.  She was on a small school bus with friends on their way to school, when they stormed their way onto the vehicle, singled her out, and shot her.  Malala survived, was flown to the UK for treatment, and made Birmingham her home base for her international campaigning.  She says “the terrorists and extremists” who tried to kill her a year ago only amplified her call for universal education to the world stage.

“Now I am more strong, I have got more courage than I had before. And on October 9 we will celebrate, not that on this day Malala was shot, but that on this day Malala is surviving.”

Despite the Taliban’s threats, Malala says she wants to go home someday.

“I believe that Pakistan is my homeland, and the soil of Pakistan is waiting for me,” she says.  “I need to work there, I need to fight for my people, I need to work for education, and I will be (back) as soon as possible.  But first of all I want to empower myself with knowledge.”

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday.  But even if she does not win, her book “I am Malala” went on sale earlier this week.