14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by Taliban gunman after speaking out for girls' education

Malala Yousufzai, who considered that education is a right for every human being, faced Taliban three years ago, when she was 11 years old, leading the movement to close girls' schools, including Yousufzai's.                    

Outraged, the then-11-year-old kept a blog for the BBC under a pen name and later launched a campaign for girls' education. It won her Pakistan's highest civilian honour and death threats from the Taliban.           

Consequently, one of the Taliban's most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah, carefully briefed two killers from his special hit squad on their next target. The gunmen weren't going after any army officer, politician or Western diplomat. Their target was a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who had angered the Taliban by speaking out for "Western"-style girls' education.             

Tuesday's shooting of Malala Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the fearless, smiling young girl against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders. Shot in the head and the neck, Yousufzai still lies unconscious in hospital, unaware that world leaders from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to U.S. President Barack Obama have pledged support. Schoolchildren in Swat prayed for her recovery.             
                
The school she attended in Mingora, owned and operated by her father, reopened Friday. The atmosphere was grim as children and teachers tried to come to terms with what happened to their star pupil. "We have decided to open the school after two days to overcome the fear among our students that gripped them due to the attack. The number of students is low today. We have not resumed regular teaching activity, but held an assembly to pray for Malala and the other two injured girls," said one of the teachers, Zafar Ali Khan.                           

Police had been deployed around the school, but even so, many students stayed away.                 

"Although we have gathered here for to pray for Malala, this shows we will keep her mission going," Ayesha Khan, a ninth-grade student. "Many of the students haven't come due to fear, but I believe this fear will subside ultimately."                        

The girl was initially airlifted from the town of Mingora in the Swat Valley to a military hospital in the frontier city of Peshawar, where doctors operated on her to remove a bullet from her neck. On Thursday she was transferred to a hospital in Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani army is headquartered.   


AP\REUTERS