(CNN) -- The shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai in Pakistan's Swat Valley has awakened the world to the dangers a resurgent Taliban poses to the rights and safety of girls and women, particularly those who are human rights activists like Malala. Here is a question for Tuesday's presidential debate: Will Malala's shooting prompt concrete steps to prevent more of such attacks, which potentially affect tens of thousands of girls and women --and could seal the fate of an entire region? Late last week, as the teenager lay hooked to a ventilator, her recovery uncertain, the Taliban pledged to come after her and her family again to punish her efforts to keep girls schools open. This is the mark of a committed foe of women's rights, impervious to how its brutality has outraged the people of Pakistan and the globe. The Taliban appears determined to extinguish women's freedom at any cost.
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Suzanne Nossel: Shooting of 14-year-old girl shows resurgent, repressive Taliban
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She says presidential candidates must answer: Will they take action to push back?
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She says in talks on region's future, women's rights chronically left out
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Nossel: U.S. must tie women's rights to laws on appropriations, policies in region
In Swat Valley, violence and harm to civilians is coming from a range of sources, including @placeholder drones in parts of Pakistan.