Birthdays are a time to move forward. We celebrate them with gratitude and greater knowledge.  It is a time to reflect  on what has passed and decide that this year we will be even stronger.

I share my BIRTHDAY with many great women and girls around the world. As I celebrate my growth and the challanges I have faced and overcome. I am reminded of something greater.  Today is Malala Day!!!!

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. As a child, she became an advocate for girls’ education, which resulted in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. On October 9, 2012, a gunman shot Malala when she was traveling home from school. She survived, and has continued to speak out on the importance of education. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2013, and again in 2014.

As we celebrate Malala Day on today, her concerns are placed elsewhere. Malala states that, “I have both hope and heartbreak. I thought we had hit a turning point in our history, that never again would a girl face what I had to face. I did not think that, just one year after my U.N. speech, more than 200 girls would be kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram simply for wanting to go to school. These girls are my sisters.”

As I have stated many times, womanhood doesn’t greet every Girl in the same manner and Malala was No different.  However, she smiled in the face of adversity and refused to be crippled by fear. She now uses her strength as a source for other girls around the world to be set free.

Bullying, rape, molestation,  child abuse and other issues are all unspeakable acts That our daughters are faced with around the world. However, the fact is; We are stronger than those who oppress us, who seek to silence us. We are stronger than the enemies of education. We are stronger than fear, hatred, violence and poverty. This strength is what makes us greater and stronger than any offense against us.

Malala Yousafzai, proof That a book and an education can change a girls life.