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| Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani advocate for girls education who was shot in 2012, is still a Taliban target |
A year ago Wednesday, Malala Yousafzai was
riding the bus home from school when a Taliban gunman climbed aboard and shot
her in the head. She nearly died.
Now, the 16-year-old advocate for girls' education is a popular
favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize to
be awarded Friday.
The memoir follows her odyssey from near-death to global fame in
just a year's time. It also gives a vivid account of her everyday life in
Pakistan's Swat Valley and how she developed a love for education.
Her public fight to get that education and for the right of girls
to get one, too, is what put her at odds with the Pakistani Taliban.
They banned girls from schools in the Swat Valley in 2009. Malala
anonymously blogged for the BBC in opposition to that order, drawing the
Islamist militants' rage.
New threat
The Taliban renewed their death threat against her Monday.
Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the teenager was targeted
because she was used in propaganda against the Taliban.
"If there is any opportunity we can target, she would be on
our hit list again."
The Taliban have denied Malala was targeted for promoting
education for girls.
"Taliban are not opposed to girls education, if it's within
the ambit of Shariah and Islamic education, but they could not support
anti-Islamic agendas and Westernized education systems," Shahid said.
The militant group destroyed over 170 schools between 2007 and
2009, the U.N. said.
Malala answers
In an interview with Malala on "The Daily Show" on
Tuesday, Jon Stewart asked her what she would do if a Taliban assassin came
calling again.
"I'll tell him how important education is, and that I even
want education for your children as well," she said Tuesday. And I would
tell him, 'that's what I want to tell you, now do what you want.'"
Fighting the Taliban is important, but through peace, dialogue and
education, she said.
But the Taliban often prefer to let their guns do the talking.
Malala has lived outside of her homeland ever since she was shot
last year.
Her odyssey
The gunman who climbed on board that school bus wounded Malala in
the head and neck. The driver hit the gas. The assailants got away.
Malala was left in critical condition.
Doctors fought to save her life, then her condition took a dip.
They operated to remove a bullet from her neck, and as brain swelling
threatened her life, a surgical team cut out a section of her skull to relieve
the pressure. After surgery, she was unresponsive for three days.
She was flown to the U.K. for intensive medical treatment and
multiple surgeries to repair the damage the bullets had done.
Doctors there covered the large hole in her skull with a titanium
plate. Malala has kept the piece of skull that had been removed as a souvenir
of her fight.
It is nothing short of a miracle that the teen education advocate
is still alive and even more astounding that she suffered no major brain or
nerve damage.
Global stage
The attempt on Malala's life propelled her and her cause onto the
global stage.
Beyond her hospital room in her new home in the UK, a world
sympathetic with her ordeal transformed her into a global symbol.
An avalanche of support poured in, including from world leaders.
The U.N. started a global education program for girls called
"I am Malala," the name she has chosen for her biography.
This year, the Malala Fund was created to support education for girls
around the world.
She recovered and addressed the United
Nations in New York on her 16th birthday, July 12.
"They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they
failed," she said. "And then, out of that silence, came thousands of
voices."
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