Malala Nominated for Nobel Prize. A year after being shot in the head by the Taliban for going to school and demanding education for girls, Malala Yousafzai is a contender for the 2013 Nobel Prize this week and appearing on The Daily Show tonight. At 16, she would be the youngest Nobel winner.
Her memoir I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot By the Taliban also hits the shelves today. The book reminds readers that Malala is a teen; she likes to watch Ugly Betty and Masterchef — while also discussing cultural attitudes towards women and political developments in her home country of Afghanistan, where the Taliban has issued a fresh threat against her life. [Reuters, CBS/AP, Telegraph]
Outsourcing a Life. Stephanie M. Lee’s special report for the San Francisco Chronicle follows the journey of infertile couple Jennifer and Steve Kowalski of San Carlos, California, to Anand in Gujarat, India, where a poor surrogate Manisha Parmar gives birth to their son Kyle at ob-gyn Dr. Nayna Patel’s Akanksha Fertility clinic. The report mostly presents the outcome for the two families as a win-win situation. But the the look at Manisha’s family and its circumstances underscores the economic motivations and social stigma for Indian women who become surrogates. [SF Chronicle]
A Period Problem. Aditi Gupta, 28, spent her teen years in Jharkhand, eastern India, too embarrassed to buy sanitary pads, even though her family could afford them, and used discarded rags instead. Her mom would bat away questions about TV ads for sanitary pads. School didn’t help either, when it provided education about periods three years after hers started, and with her teacher skipping the chapter on it, telling students to read it on their own.
Gupta and her husband Tuhin Paul, both graduates of Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design, decided to set up a website called Menstrupedia to break the taboo. The “friendly guide to healthy periods” offers information on puberty and sexuality for pre-teens and teens. Watch this video from Menstrupedia’s founders for more details. [The Wall Street Journal]
Kumail Nanjiani to appear on NBC’s Community. Fans of comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani (Franklin & Bash, Burning Love) can look forward to the fifth season of NBC’s Community because Nanjiani will guest star on an episode as a “right hand man” to the character of Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly). Fillion will be playing a head custodian on the quirky comedy set at a fictional Greendale Community College. [Bustle]
Pavani Yalamanchili is a co-founder and editor of The Aerogram. Email her at editors@theaerogram.com. Find The Aerogram on Twitter @theaerogram.
