Taliban: We're Still After Malala

Teen education advocate invited to Buckingham Palace
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2013 9:20 AM CDT
Taliban: We're Still After Malala
Malala Yousafzai addresses students and faculty after receiving the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at Harvard University Friday, Sept. 27, 2013.   (AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi)

It's been a year since Malala Yousufzai was shot by Pakistani Taliban—and new threats aren't stopping the 16-year-old in her fight for girls' education. Traveling to her native Swat Valley, the BBC offers a new window into Malala's background and life story. The region launched boys' schools in 1922, and within a few years it offered girls' schools as well. Standing out from its neighbors, "Swat was proud of its record on education," says the grandson of former leaders. But in 2008, the Taliban demanded that girls' schools shut down—or face danger.

Despite the threat, Malala blogged and made public appearances to describe her educational experience. "I didn't want my future to be just sitting in a room and be imprisoned in my four walls and just cooking and giving birth to children," she tells the BBC, which gives a detailed account of the shooting and the risky surgery afterward. Now attending school in England, Malala continues to face danger from the Taliban. "She accepted that she attacked Islam, so we tried to kill her, and if we get another chance we will definitely kill her and that will make us feel proud," says a spokesman, per Sky News. But there are bright spots on the horizon, the AP notes: Malala has been invited to a reception with Queen Elizabeth, and she's a Nobel Peace Prize contender. (More Malala Yousafzai stories.)

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