Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai to get honorary Canadian citizenship

Ottawa, Ontario: Canada will formally bestow honorary citizenship to Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani education activist who won this year's Nobel Peace prize. Prime Minister Stephen Harper had announced the government's intention to grant her honorary citizenship last year. He said Friday that it will be formally awarded to her when she travels to Ottawa on October 22.

Harper's spokesman, Jason MacDonald, said a Parliamentary process is ongoing to confer the citizenship. She is the sixth person to receive honorary Canadian citizenship. Yousafzai, 17, was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago for insisting that girls, as well as boys, have the right to an education. With the help of British medical care, she survived to become an international advocate for girls' education.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with India's Kailash Satyarthi, who has fought to end child slavery and exploitative child labor. Harper congratulated both winners "for their wonderful work for humanity, for their tireless efforts in favor of children's rights, and for bringing the causes they cherish to the attention of the whole world.”