14-Year-Old Activist Shot in Pakistan

Diarist Malala Yousufzai injured in attack
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2012 7:00 AM CDT
14-Year-Old Activist Shot in Pakistan
A screen grab from YouTube video of Malala Yousufzai.   (YouTube)

A 14-year-old activist has been wounded after being shot in Pakistan, and the Taliban is taking credit. Malala Yousufzai, who penned a diary for the BBC about her experiences under Taliban rule, will recover, reports say. Accounts of the Swat region attack differ: One report says a gunman halted schoolgirls in a car, asked for Yousufzai, and opened fire; another account says gunmen fired at schoolgirls boarding a vehicle. One of Yousufzai's companions was injured.

Yousufzai wrote her diary as an 11-year-old in 2009 after the Taliban, which then held power in the region, closed girls' schools. She used a pen name, Gul Makai, to describe the hardships of her experience. The teen was later nominated for an international peace award and a national prize for bravery, the BBC reports. She has said she eventually hopes to work in politics: "I dreamt of a country where education would prevail." (More Malala Yousafzai stories.)

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