Malala's Pashto Interview..............د طالبانو له سوچ سره مخالفه یم. ملاله

د تعلیم مبارزې ملالې یوسفزۍ ویلي دي چې هغې د طالبانو پر ضد پروپیګنډه نه کوله، بلکې د هغوی د سوچ او مفکورې مخالفه ده. نوموړې دا خبره د مشال راډیو له خبریال عبدالحي کاکړ سره په یوه ځانګړې مرکه کې کړېده، چې نن د اکتوبر پر نهمه نېټه پر هغې د برید یو کال پوره کېدو په مناسبت ده. ملالې وویل، کله چې طالبانو په سوات کې د نجونو پر تعلیم بندیز ولګاوه نو دې یې مخالفت وکړ او د تعلیم او ښځو حقونو لپاره یې هلې ځلې پیل کړې. ملاله په نړیواله توګه د تعلیم مبارزې په توګه پېژندل شوې ده او د ۲۰۱۳ز کال د سولې نوبېل انعام لپاره هم په کتار کې ده. دا لومړی ځل دی چې تر ویشتو وروسته ملالې د پښتو ژبې له یوې رسنۍسره خبرې کوي.

The Kind Executioner: Of Z.A. Bhutto’s final moments

Pakistani-American writer Mumtaz Hussain’s script The Kind Executioner was shortlisted in the drama category amongst the official finalists of the Hollywood Screenplay Contest last week. Now, Hussain is ready to transform this script, which portrays the relationship between late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his executioner, into a movie.

Hussain says his project, which is in English, is a piece of fiction derived from the last years of Bhutto’s life. “I am delighted to learn that my script has been appreciated because I am working hard to make this film my singular achievement,” Hussain told APP. The writer hails from Jhang but has lived in New York for the past couple of years. The production will portray the relationship between the popular prime minister and his executioner Tara Masih, who believed Bhutto (executed in 1979) was a saviour of Pakistan. The script, which was evaluated by a team of writers and experts, is said to be intense in terms of both its dialogue and drama. The Kind Executioner will be an attempt to cinematically answer questions in the audience’s mind by symbolism, and Hussain is confident that the average Pakistani, who doesn’t really have an interest in history or politics, will be able to enjoy it. He promises it will be meaningful, with unique transformations and expressions. He did not disclose too many details as he is keen on preserving the audience’s curiosity till the project is ready for release. Hussain has held several exhibitions as a modern artist and has also published a collection of short stories in Urdu. The winning scripts of the Hollywood Screenplay Contest, the body that has shortlisted Hussain’s film, the winning scripts are forwarded to several leading production companies and literary agencies. The screenplays are scored and evaluated on a multi-point scale with criteria including concept, structure, plot, pacing, character, dialogue, style, theme and marketability.

In Pakistan, vaccinating children against polio can be a deadly job

With a few drops of vaccine, Gulnaz shields another child from the devastating effects of polio. It's a simple but potentially life-saving task. It's also incredibly dangerous -- not for the children, but for Gulnaz, who works in one of the most violent parts of Karachi. Last year, her niece and sister-in-law -- also polio workers -- were gunned down by men on motorcycles. The U.N.'s children's agency, UNICEF, said they were shot to death for vaccinating the children . But the deaths haven't stopped Gulnaz, who is using one name for safety reasons. "Everybody in my family was suffering from shock. Some of them tried to stop me, telling me not to do this job anymore because two coffins leaving one house leaves a mark," she said. Anti-polio campaigns have been targeted by militants ever since U.S. intelligence used a fake vaccination program to help in its hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. The CIA used a fake vaccination program to collect DNA samples from residents of bin Laden's compound to verify his presence there.

Taliban to U.S.: End drone strikes, or no more polio vaccines

That wasn't a polio campaign, but the fallout still lingers. Since July 2012, at least 22 polio workers have been killed. Still, Gulnaz remains undeterred. "After this tragedy, I'm not scared at all. In fact, I feel even stronger and more determined," she said. "Every woman in this country who is doing this job is praying for me. When I'm working in the field I'm with my partner, but I also sense that my niece and sister-in-law who were killed are walking alongside me." Gulnaz and her partner are escorted by paramilitary soldiers who seal off the area -- guarding each end of a street to ensure that young children get access to the crucial drops of vaccine that most parents and children around the world can simply get from their local doctor.

Unrelenting attacks

On Monday alone, two people were killed and 13 others were wounded in a bombing that targeted polio workers in northwest Pakistan, police said. That blast took place on the outskirts of the violence-plagued city of Peshawar. At the U.N., money backs up vow to eradicate polio by 2015 The bomb was detonated remotely as polio vaccines and accompanying materials were being handed out to health workers, said Najeeb-Ur-Rehman, a senior police superintendent. Last year, a Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan announced a ban on polio vaccines for children in the region as long as the United States continues its campaign of drone strikes. It wasn't immediately clear if the Taliban played a role in the most recent attacks.

A father's dilemma

Osman was infected with polio as a child and wanted to make sure his children were vaccinated. But after the raid that killed bin Laden, he decided not to vaccinate his 3-year-old son, Musharraf. The boy became one of the 28 cases of detected polio in Pakistan in 2013. "I'm not stupid or illiterate. I made sure my other children got the drops," Osman said. "But I was very angry and wary of aid workers, because if they are cooperating with spy agencies, then it's better to keep away from them. I am sad my youngest suffered, but I don't regret my decision." Osman, who is using only one name for safety reasons, changed his mind only after the government released a booklet with a series of religious edicts from Muslim scholars telling parents that polio drops are safe. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis in just hours. It has been eradicated around the world except for three countries where it is endemic: Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. After the number of cases spiked sharply last year, Pakistan stepped up its eradication efforts. The numbers fell from 173 in 2011 to 58 in 2012, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. "I am appealing to my fellow Pashtun society, to give their kids polio drops," Osman said. It's a message that health care workers hope others will hear. It could not only make their jobs safer, but also save children from a lifetime of disability.

In Pakistan's Pashtun tribal belt, Taliban reject peace talks

The Pakistani Taliban envoy drew his white trousers up before settling on the floor of a mud-walled house in Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal region near the Afghan border. Bodyguards, their long hair spilling out from traditional flat caps, listened warily for the occasional sound of a drone aircraft overhead. Carefully, Shahidullah Shahid laid out the conditions for peace talks with the Pakistani government: release all Taliban prisoners, withdraw the army from the tribal areas where the Taliban are entrenched, and stop U.S. drone strikes. The Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of factions operating independently from their Afghan Taliban allies, are fighting to set up an Islamic state in Pakistan but the government is trying to negotiate a peace settlement to end years of fighting. "Drones really stop us from moving freely in the area," Shahid, the main spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told a small group of reporters on a recent visit to Waziristan. "But even if our enemies use an atomic bomb, we would not stop our jihad." Despite the government's push for talks, violence has risen sharply since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to power in a May election. Churches, buses and markets have all been hit, reflecting the Taliban's resolve to keep fighting. "Islam doesn't need democracy. Islam itself is a complete system," Shahid said, adding that there had been no direct peace contacts between Sharif's representatives and the Taliban. Taliban officials who escorted Reuters on the trip requested that the exact location of the interview not be revealed. Pakistan sponsored the rise of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan in the 1990s but now faces its own home-grown insurgency. It is keen to find a lasting solution to the problem which has devastated communities and ruined the economy. "At the start of negotiations, you don't threaten them, you speak from a position of strength but you don't try to irritate them," Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's foreign policy chief, said last month. ALERT FOR PEACE Pakistan's semi-autonomous Pashtun lands along the Afghan border, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), have never been brought under the full control of any government. British forces for years battled Pashtun rebels promoting jihad, or holy war, against the colonialists. In the 1980s, the region became the staging area for a new holy war, against Soviet occupiers over the British-drawn border in Afghanistan. These days, in areas such as Waziristan, support for a peace deal is strong. Homes and shops have been flattened by army operations, militant fighting and drone strikes. Cars with black tinted windows barrel down roads cratered by roadside bombs. Reflecting the army's nervousness, checkpoints open fire on any vehicles approaching after a curfew at dusk. Pakistan's government publicly condemns U.S. drone attacks on its territory but militants say that the fact the strikes continue means that Pakistan tacitly approves them. "I listen to the radio at night, when there is news about peace talks my family is all alert," said 55-year-old Khan Alam, who fled fighting between the army and the militants. "I want to go back to my own home, my orchards, my fields, my graveyard." Observers believe the government and the militants are playing for time ahead of the pullout of most overseas forces from Afghanistan by the end of next year. The militants hope victory for the Afghan Taliban would spur their fight against the Pakistani state. Pakistan hopes the end of the war in Afghanistan will convince the Pakistani Taliban to end their fight. In recent weeks, smaller Taliban factions like Jundullah, which has many fighters from outside the Taliban heartland in the Pashtun areas, have become active. Jundullah claimed an attack on a church in the frontier town of Peshawar that killed more than 80 people last month and an attack on a polio vaccination team on Monday. Such bloodshed casts doubt over the proposed talks and even raises questions about the chances of convincing the fractious militants of the need for peace. "After what the Taliban have done, what kind of peace can they have?" said Saifullah Mahsud of the FATA Research Center, a think-tank that works in the tribal areas. "There are divisions but they know they have to stick together to survive."

Rift appears in PTI over ‘flawed’ policies

Rifts emerged within the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Tuesday after one of its MPAs submitted an application to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker for a separate seat in the House. “The party leadership in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has deviated from its policies and manifesto and therefore, I have requested the speaker to allot me a separate seat in the House as soon as possible,” PTI MPA Javed Naseem from Peshawar told Dawn here. Mr Naseem said PTI had pledged to eradicate corruption and follow merit if it came to power, but some of its ministers and leaders were trying to maintain the status quo and were reluctant to take action against ‘corrupt officers’. “I am neither acceptable to the treasury benches nor the opposition and that is why I have asked the speaker to allot me a separate seat,” he said. He claimed that many PTI MPAs were not happy with the provincial government’s policies and they would soon submit applications to the speaker to allot them separate benches. The MPA complained that he had provided a list of officers in Peshawar Development Authority and other departments to the relevant quarters, who were allegedly involved in corrupt practices, but the ministers were reluctant to initiate inquiry against them. He said he had also discussed the issues with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak time and again, but in vain. Asked what would be his future line of action if the speaker did not allot him a separate seat, Javed Naseem said he would quit as lawmaker. “I have given 12 years of my life to PTI, which was voted to power to eradicate corruption, injustice from society and observe merit. If the party can’t deliver and fulfil its commitments to the people, then I should not sit in the assembly,” he said. Earlier in the House, the disgruntled lawmaker came down heavily on the provincial government over ‘flawed’ policies when the opposition benches protested political interference in posting and transfer of senior officers in police and health departments. He said one ‘committed sub-engineer’ was transferred from Peshawar to Torghar district only because he was not acceptable to Jamaat-i-Islami, coalition partner of the ruling PTI. He said the officer was punished for honesty and was transferred to a remote area. OPPOSITION’S WALKOUT: A stalemate exists between the government and the opposition over the district advisory development committees. The opposition members complained that the chief minister had appointed MPAs of the treasury benches as chairpersons of DDACs in the districts, where lawmakers of the opposition parties were in majority. The opposition benches staged a walkout to protest on the matter. On a point of order, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Wajeh Zaman Khan said the government despite assurances had yet to resolve grievances of the opposition parties regarding appointment of chairpersons of the committees. He said female MPA of PTI Maliha Tanveer, who belonged to another district, had been appointed the DDAC chairperson in Mansehra, where the opposition lawmakers had won most seats in the May 11 elections. Mr Wajeh Zaman said another female lawmaker of the ruling party, Zareen Riaz, had been appointed the head of the committee in Lakki Marwat district, where the opposition MPAs ere in majority. He also criticised the government for transferring district police officer from Mansehra to Dera Ismail Khan. The PML-N MPA said the people in Mansehra protested against the transfer of the police officer and blocked roads on Tuesday. He urged the government to follow merit and stop postings and transfers on political grounds. Other members of the opposition parties also protested against the government’s ‘discriminatory policies’ for the appointment of DDAC chairpersons and left the House. Later, the treasury members on the directive of Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid persuaded the opposition to end protest. Minister for Works and Services Department Yousaf Ayub assured the House that the chief minister would meet parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties within two days to address their ‘genuine’ grievances. He rejected the opposition’s allegations about violation of policy in postings and transfers. RESOLUTION: The assembly unanimously passed a resolution to demand of the federal government to dissolve the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority over failure to achieve the desired results. Maulana Asmatullah of JUI-F tabled the resolution, which asked the centre to transfer the Erra funds to the provincial government to undertake reconstruction activities in the earthquake-affected districts of the province. Earlier, PML-N MPA Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha said the federal government had decided to dissolve Erra and an inquiry had been conducted into the alleged irregularities.

Pakistan: Autocracy takes roots in NA

In a democratic system the National Assembly provides infrastructure of the Standing Committees comprising the members of the House to look after the day-to-day affairs of the country and execute the projects of the government. Thus in the parliamentary form of the government, the House elects members of the Standing Committees within one month after forming of the government. Lady luck does not favour the nations being ruled by the weak and fragile democracies; Pakistan is no exception. The PML-N formed the government under the leadership of Mian Nawaz Sharif for the third term that many believed had enough exposure and experience to run the democratic show—at least better than the previous government. But contrary to the expectations, after coming into power, outnumbering the opponents in vote-count, the government, perhaps, lost its interest in the National Assembly. The elections of the 34 NA Standing Committees were held but only after six weeks’ delay. A notification to this effect is still being awaited for convening the meetings of these committees that are supposed to elect their heads. The inordinate delay has left the entire process in limbo. Hence barring Finance Bill, the federal government is yet to undertake any legislation which is simply not possible in the absence of fully functional Standing Committees. If the government has ignored the formation of the mandatory standing bodies, the weak Opposition, for obvious reasons, has not shown any sense of urgency to this effect either despite the lapse of over one hundred days that are mostly considered as crucial to set tune of the government for the rest of the tenure. So far, the PML-N government has hardly taken up any issue of the national importance in the National Assembly to evolve consensus amongst the elected members of the people across Pakistan rather it preferred to use informal forum of the All Parties Conference to discuss the issue of terrorism. Similarly, the incumbent rulers have announced to sell off 31 national institutions including PIA, PSM and Railways but it is yet to raise infrastructure to execute the plan. Similarly, the matter of supreme importance like the decision to raise the prices of power and oil was taken with the consultations amongst the Prime Minister and his cronies rather than taking the National Assembly into confidence. What to talk of others, the government is yet to initiate consultation process with the Opposition over the appointment of the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee that establishes transparency and credibility of the rulers. The tendencies in the power corridors indicate that an autocratic rule is more likely to reign supreme in days, months and even years to come, and the National Assembly will be used as a rubber stamp which is the natural outcome in any state where the politics of dynasty becomes an acceptable norm.

Malala to return ‘as soon as possible’

WE all know Malala the victim, Malala the activist, and Malala the icon. What we only get glimpses of, however, is Malala the 16-year old girl. Despite being catapulted into the world stage, she’s still a young lady who, like many her age, enjoys a good joke, fights with her younger brothers and is also a fan of the Twilight series of movies predominantly enjoyed by teenage girls the world over.

“I like Edward the vampire, more than Jacob the werewolf because vampires live forever,” she says as she refers to the central characters of Twilight, between whom the leading lady of the series has to choose. “It’s fun to get away from the real world and enter a new world where you can take your mind away from your daily life. I think that’s really important,” she says in an interview with Dawn newspaper and CityFM 89. But the real world just won’t be denied. It’s been a busy week for this child activist. There have been dozens of interviews, a book launch, meetings with global leaders and celebrities alike, an invitation to Buckingham Palace and — last but never least — talk of a Nobel prize. Is that a fair burden to place on these shoulders? Will the prize, as some have argued, prevent her from enjoying a ‘normal’ life? “I do want to enjoy my life,” she says after a moment of consideration. “But if I have to give up a few minutes of playing cricket, or fighting with my brothers, then that’s what I’ll do. What’s important to me is the cause of education and I want to fight for those millions of children who are out of school, who are suffering from terrorism, or are forced to labour, who do not even have food to eat or who are homeless. If I have to give up a little normality for that, then that’s what I’ll do.” But does she feel she deserves the prize itself? “In my opinion I haven’t done enough to deserve the prize,” she replies candidly. “There are a lot of people who deserve the prize and I think I still have a lot of work to do.” From there the conversation turns to her family. We’ve heard a great deal about her father, who has clearly been a major influence on her life but what about her mother? What has her role been through these trying times? “People only know about my father, but my mother loves me and has always supported me and encouraged me. She’s a great woman! She never stopped me or my father from continuing our campaign and always told me I was doing the right thing.” The attack, the coma and the very fact of moving away from home has, however, been hard on Malala’s mother. “It was hard for her when she saw I could not smile, that the left side of my face was paralysed. Even my voice changed and it was very tough on her. I lost hearing in one ear and that too was hard for her because she’s a mother and she wants her daughter to be perfect. Even today she prays constantly that I should be the same Malala I was then, before the attack. I think God is listening to her prayers because I’m recovering every day,” she says. Adjusting to life in the UK has been difficult for Malala as well. “At home I was just Malala, but here they treat me differently. I think my personality of being ‘only Malala’ or being a normal child…that’s gone now.” There’s a note of sadness in her voice as she says this, but then she perks up the very next instant. “I think it will get better with time,” she says. “There’s no sun here in Birmingham,” she sighs as she recalls the valley of Swat where she was born and grew up. It is clear that, despite the global platform she now occupies, she misses her home. That begs the question: Will she ever come home? “Yes,” she replies without hesitation. “I love my home and I miss it and I now realise how beautiful Swat is and how precious Pakistan is. I’ll come home as soon as possible but first I have to empower myself with knowledge, I need to study hard and equip myself with the weapons of education. So yes, I’ll be back as soon as possible and I’ll continue my campaign for education.

Malala Yousafzai: A strong message, a mighty machine

MARK MACKINNON

The story of Malala Yousafzai is already the stuff of legend. She’s the Pakistani teenager who dared to defy the Taliban, surviving a horrifying assassination attempt to emerge as a symbol of bravery, and a campaigner for girls’ education, telling the United Nations last month to send books and pens, rather than tanks, to troubled parts of the world.And that’s not counting this week. On Sunday, she received an invitation to a Buckingham Palace reception with the Queen. On Tuesday, the now 16-year-old published her autobiography, I Am Malala. (The title is a chin-up answer to the Taliban gunman who boarded a school bus last Oct. 9, asking “Who is Malala?” before shooting her in the head). The book immediately shot onto bestseller lists. Wednesday is the anniversary of the day she was shot. And on Friday, Ms. Yousafzai is the odds-on favourite to become the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. If Ms. Yousafzai wins the Nobel, there will be quiet joy in her native Swat Valley – school-aged girls there are reportedly praying in secret for her victory – as well as loud outrage from a Taliban movement that condemned her once more this week as an enemy of Islam and threatened to try again to kill her. Far away from all that, there might also be celebrations in the offices of the world’s biggest public relations firm, Edelman – which lists the likes of Starbucks and Microsoft alongside Ms. Yousafzai in its roster of clients – as well as those of McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm that makes billions by advising governments around the world. Ms. Yousafzai’s story is certainly worthy of telling. But she’s had an unprecedented amount of help getting her message out. “Her life is a miracle,” her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, told an interviewer this summer. “I think I’m not the only person who owns her as a daughter. She’s owned by everybody. She’s the daughter of the world.” But would the world have adopted Malala if she had stood up against, say, child labour in the production of iPhones, instead of the friendless Taliban? Or if she’d been wounded by a U.S. drone strike? Or if she didn’t speak such fluent English? The global Malala Movement has led to a backlash in her native Pakistan, where some view her as a tool of the West, used to embarrass their country, culture and religion. “In certain segments of society in Pakistan, whenever someone is backed by the West, there’s an instant suspicion that arises in the minds of Pakistanis,” Shiza Shahid, the head of the Malala Fund and a long-time family friend, said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. “There are segments in society who have felt that about Malala, which is unfortunate, because she is a girl whose heart beats very deeply for Pakistan.” It was Mr. Yousafzai, an educator who ran a school for both boys and girls in Swat, who first introduced his daughter to the world. In 2009, he invited a New York Times documentary maker into the family’s home to talk about an edict from the Taliban – which then controlled the Swat Valley – banning girls in the region from attending school. An 11-year-old Malala quickly became the star of the show, telling the camera in English, “I want to get my education. I want to become a doctor,” before burying her face in her left hand, obviously despairing that she would realize those dreams. The shooting last year – a brute attempt to silence the girl and her campaign – brought Ms. Yousafzai more attention than ever. As she miraculously staged a full recovery, political heavyweights around the world came to see what her father saw. She was lifted into the global limelight, a Gandhi for Muslim girls. Among the first to visit Ms. Yousafzai after she was evacuated to a hospital in Birmingham, England, was former British prime minister Gordon Brown, now a United Nations special envoy for global education. He asked the family what he could do for help, and they requested that Ms. Shahid, who was then working for McKinsey, help them deal with the media storm. Mr. Brown put in a call to McKinsey senior partner Dominic Barton, who had occasionally advised Mr. Brown while he was prime minister, and asked him to lend Ms. Shahid to the Malala Fund. It wasn’t a tough sell. Public relations-savvy businesspeople and politicians knew a winning cause when they saw one and were quick to jump on board. Edelman took up Ms. Yousafzai’s cause pro bono, setting up a five-person “Malala press office” in London, headed by well-known speechwriter Jamie Lundie. They’ve been carefully doling out media access to their client to coincide with her book launch and Nobel Prize week. There’s still a three-week waiting list of journalists who want to talk to her. Megan Smith, the high-profile vice-president of Google, joined Ms. Shahid on the Malala Fund board, and the fund’s first donor was actress Angelina Jolie, who put $200,000 toward the education of 40 girls in the Swat Valley. Last year, while Ms. Yousafzai was still in hospital, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was one of the first global leaders to sign a petition calling for her to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Jonathan Yeo, who sat down with Ms. Yousafzai to paint her for a portrait that hangs in Britain’s National Portrait Gallery, says he initially had reservations about the publicity machine swirling around his subject. “I had concerns generally. She’s this figure that so many other people are projecting their ideas onto. ... There are people circling around her who are looking to, perhaps, piggyback on the goodwill around her and the purity of her cause. People looking to promote their own causes or simply launder their reputations,” Mr. Yeo said. But his worries were eased after he met Ms. Yousafzai. “She sees it all, and she’s very clear about it,” he said. “I was impressed by how wise beyond her years she was.” Ms. Shahid, who first met an 11-year-old Malala when she was one of 20 girls who attended an educational retreat organized for girls from the Swat Valley, says the organizations and politicians who have gravitated to Ms. Yousafzai simply recognized the potency of her story. “A lot of people were already fighting for this [universal education for girls], but in Malala they found the most perfect symbol of all that they were fighting for, because her story showed the tragedy of what is happening – thousands of girls across the world are being denied their voice, denied their basic rights. But it also showed just what is possible if a girl is educated, if she is given back her power.” On being a girl When I was born, people in our village commiserated wth my mother and nobody congratulated my father. ... I was a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children.

- From I Am Malala On being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

On the shelves of our rented living room are awards from around the world – America, India, France, Spain, Italy and Austria, and many other places. I’ve even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person ever. When I received prizes for my work at school I was happy, as I had worked hard for them, but these prizes are different. I am grateful for them, but they only remind me how much work still needs to be done to achieve the goal of education for every boy and girl. I don’t want to be thought of as the “girl who was shot by the Taliban” but “the girl who fought for education.” - From I Am Malala On being shocked by Bend It Like Beckham To keep me occupied [in hospital] they brought me a DVD player. One of the first movies they got me was Bend It Like Beckham, thinking the story of a Sikh girl challenging her cultural norms and playing football would appeal to me. I was shocked when the girls took off their shirts to practice in sports bras and I made the nurses switch it off.

- From I Am Malala On her desire to be a politician

I will be a politician in my future. I want to change the future of my country and I want to make education compulsory. I hope that a day will come [when] the people of Pakistan will be free, they will have their rights, there will be peace and every girl and every boy will be going to school. - From an interview with the BBC, broadcast this week

On the man who shot her

He was young, in his 20s … he was quite young, we may call him a boy. And it’s hard to have a gun and kill people. Maybe that’s why his hand was shaking. Maybe he didn’t know if he could do it. But people are brainwashed. That’s why they do things like suicide attacks and killing people. I can’t imagine it – that boy who shot me, I can’t imagine hurting him even with a needle. I believe in peace. I believe in mercy.

- From an interview with the Guardian published this week On the Taliban

When I was shot, they thought the people would be silenced, they thought that no one would talk. I think they might be repenting why they shot Malala.

Malala : '' A symbol of resistance '

In the midst of celebratory news that Malala Yousafzai, the little girl who took a bullet in the face last year fired by Taliban militants for being a vocal advocate of education rights for young women, has been voiced as a favourite to win the Nobel Peace Prize, the brutes who shot her are vowing fresh attempts to kill her. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has stated that it will target her again because she is a supporter of the ‘infidel West’. This accusation by the Taliban is, unfortunately, an idea that is gaining some traction with right-wing individuals and conspiracy theorists in Pakistan who think she is an ‘agent’ of the US, being highlighted to fulfil some nefarious goals. If that is true — and we mean to address the Taliban and the suspicious elements in the country — Malala is being lauded by the entire world, East to West, and has been appreciated for her unfailing efforts by people from all walks of life, then how can she be called an agent of the imperial superpower? How can someone with ulterior motives, and that too a little child, allow herself to be shot in the face by militants who would have surely killed her? She is a hot favourite for the Nobel Peace Prize for two reasons: first of all, she has emerged as a symbol of resistance against Taliban ideology, which strives to see nothing less than women locked up in their homes and society regressing back into the dark ages. The world needed someone to wrestle strength and hope back from the militants. Secondly, after the devastating attack against her, she has advocated love and enlightenment through education, forgiving her attackers publicly. She has recently advised the government in Pakistan to talk to the militants in attempts to find peace. The little warrior for education is also one of Pakistan’s strongest proponents of peace but her idealism and naivety are evident. Two of the strongest political parties in Pakistan, the PML-N at the centre and the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were both loud backers of the negotiations process but the spate of deadly attacks that ravaged the country in the wake of their call for peace have made even these political parties rethink their strategy. Grudgingly, even they are beginning to agree that effective operations against the militants may be the only way to ensure peace. While Malala talks of only peace and second chances, the Taliban speak only of second attempts to murder and cause widespread destruction. It should be clear to our countrymen whose side they should be on.

The Malala story

Come Friday we will know if teenager Malala Yousafzai becomes the second Pakistani since Dr Abdus Salam to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She is now widely considered a front-runner for the prize. The announcement by the Nobel committee will come almost precisely a year after Malala was shot. A powerful BBC documentary has revisited the events of that day, reviving global interest in her. If she is awarded the Nobel, it will be our moment of pride. But this Friday may also be our day of shame, for then we will also have maintained our 100 percent record of driving Nobel Laureates out of the country. There are still many in this country who propound preposterous theories on how Malala faked the shooting or is working for the CIA. Another view goes that the girl, for whom an international UN day is now marked to promote literacy, has been turned into a kind of brand. Conspiracy theories abound, and perhaps we see at times the green of envy. There can be some reason for concern as perhaps there has been too much commercialisation and exploitation. But what does all this do to change the real Malala story? Words scarcely exist to describe her bravery and poise, first for writing her journal when Swat was under militant control, then for refusing to be silenced by a horrific murder attempt and continuing to speak out and working for girls’ education. In a series of interviews given in conjunction with the release of her autobiography, ‘I Am Malala’, the sixteen-year-old has shown all the qualities that should make her an undisputed heroine at home, not a fount for political controversy. She has talked of human rights and freedom in a manner so articulate that we tend to forget that she is still a young girl. The weight that has been placed on her shoulders is too great but it is one she wears well. Malala continues to spread her message – but doesn’t plan on stopping there. She has said that she foresees a future in politics which would be most welcome even if we can’t help but continue to fear for her life. While mincing no words about the TTP’s brutality and their abuse of religion, she has also graciously said she favours talks with the militants. The TTP do not seem impressed and have put out a statement saying they will continue to target her and kill her if they can because she serves ‘infidels’. Clearly the girl inspires a great deal of hatred in them. That is only to be expected since there is no greater testament to the brutality and inhumanity of the TTP than this brave girl who had the courage to stand up to their bullying and nearly paid the ultimate price for it. For some reason Malala has become such a lightning rod that even her most innocuous statements lead to political wrangling. Such is the destiny of those who make the difficult choice of going against the grain. The question to be asked is not whether Malala deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize; it’s whether the Nobel Peace Prize deserves a winner as worthy as her.

Malala and the TTP: A staggering contrast

IT is a year today since Malala Yousafzai was shot, and it is the country’s good fortune that she not just survived but is doubly determined to continue to campaign for education. Given all that she has been through, it would not have been surprising perhaps had she displayed revanchist sentiments against the TTP which launched grievous harm on her person and under whose thrall she earlier spent time in Swat. But Ms Yousafzai is being quoted across the world’s media for the best of reasons, saying that she wants to change Pakistan’s future through political activity and compulsory education. And while some consider unexpected her remarks on Monday about talking to the Taliban, is that really the case? “The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue and … through peaceful ways,” she commented. Even in the context of people who almost killed her, there is recognition that hatred can produce no future. All of this throws into even starker relief the ugliness of those who consider her a target. Even as Ms Yousafzai spoke of peace, the TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid denounced her courageousness and said that his group would try to kill her again. The young girl’s steadfastness of purpose and the ambassadorial role that has settled upon her has no doubt irked the TTP, but nothing can be more shameful than the contrast between the victim that wants peace and the perpetrators of violence that desire to peddle death. At the other end of this opprobrious spectrum, Maulana Samiul Haq, chairman of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, accused Ms Yousafzai of having been “hijacked” by Western and anti-Islam powers, even though the logic — given that the West wants the TTP eliminated — is tenuous at best. This is far from the first time the TTP has taken a position that bodes ill for long-term success in the dialogue option. On Oct 5, its spokesperson shocked the nation by saying the TTP approved of the bombing of Peshawar’s All Saints Church since it was in keeping with the Sharia. The Sept 10 resolution of the all parties’ conference that offered talks to the TTP could have paved the way for the group to renounce violence, pledge loyalty to the Constitution and begin to integrate itself in the mainstream by joining the political process. But Shahidullah Shahid’s statement appears to be a reaffirmation of the TTP leadership’s hubris, and peace could be a long time coming.

Gordon Brown: Malala Proves One Person Can Make A Difference

Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani advocate for girls' education, has made many friends worldwide since she survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban last year. One of those supporters is former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who also serves as UN special envoy for global education. He told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal recently that Malala is a symbol of how much one individual can do when she believes firmly in a cause.

"Malala is a brave, courageous, wonderful young woman who has shown the world that the determination and courage to stand up for your principles can mean huge sacrifices but can also show the world that good can come when you stand up for your principles," Brown said. Brown also said Malala has already made a difference in the education situation for girls in Pakistan. After she was shot in the head on a school bus by Taliban gunmen on her way home from school, thousands of schoolchildren demonstrated in support of her demand that girls be able to attend schools safely and freely. "When I visited Pakistan a month after Malala was shot, I found that thousands of girls and boys were supporting her campaign, and [I found] that the government introduced legislation to bring about free compulsory education -- they created stipends for 3 million girls," Brown said. "Most recently, the new government has announced they will double the spending on education from 2 percent to 4 percent of national income. And much of this is due to the influence that Malala and her father and the cause she represents has had on the Pakistani people." But Malala has also had a global reach. Brown said that as she now travels the world speaking on behalf of children's education, she has equally called for the world not to forget the plight of Syrian children in refugee camps in neighboring countries. Asked if he feels Malala now has a good chance of winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize, Brown said that whether she receives it or not she is already a winner for making children's education such an important issue around the world. "People are not talking about the importance of girls getting schooling, people are now talking about why 57 million children are not able to go to school because we have not the schools and the teachers or because we have child labor and child marriage preventing girls from going to school," Brown said. Malala currently lives in Birmingham, in the U.K., where she received treatment after she was shot.

'Malala has turned a tragedy into something positive'

By Sayeeda Warsi

Malala Yousafzai’s story begins with her parents being commiserated with after producing a baby girl. In their part of northern Pakistan, she says, rifle shots ring out in celebration of a baby boy’s arrival. But there is no such fanfare for females: their destiny is to cook and clean, to be neither seen nor heard. When Mr and Mrs Yousafzai were married, a small boy was placed on their laps to encourage the birth of a son. It didn’t work: their firstborn was a girl who “popped out kicking and screaming”. Her father was mocked by relatives for bothering to add her name to the family tree, which only featured men. So how did Malala, who barely warranted a mention in her family’s genealogy, become destined for the history books as a powerful symbol for girls’ universal right to an education? Her memoir I am Malala tells us how. Almost a year ago, the world became aware of Malala when she was shot by the Taliban for what they deemed a crime: going to school, and fighting for that right. Born in 1997, she had grown up with her two younger brothers (the boy-on-the-lap trick eventually worked) in Mingora, the biggest city of Swat Valley in Kyber Pukhtunkwa (KPK), previously known as the North West Frontier. Malala gained fame – and some notoriety among the strict, anti-Western mullahs – for writing an anonymous blog on girls’ education for BBC Urdu, before revealing her identity and campaigning more vocally on girls’ rights. Her story, written with foreign correspondent Christina Lamb, starts with the details of her upbringing, her grandparents’ and parents’ backgrounds, and her childhood. The narrative, however, soon becomes like a treacherous KPK road: unpredictable and full of obstacles. En route to Malala’s attempted assassination, we read about the 1999 military takeover of Pakistan; the attacks of September 11 2001; yet another war in neighbouring Afghanistan; the assassination of Pakistan’s first woman Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto; and the killing of Osama bin Laden – all through the eyes of a girl who is almost as young as this tumultuous century. After Malala turns 10, Taliban rule hangs over the lives of the people of Swat. She sees fanatical extremists destroy the cherished Buddhist landmarks of her city. She sees them brainwashing her neighbours and pocketing their wages. She also sees, with her own eyes, the beheaded victims of their purges. But the recurring theme of her tale is the assaults on the rights of women and girls. Every chapter sheds a glaring light on women’s subordination. Her family's situation deteriorates further when the Taliban gain control of Swat. Despite Islam’s rich history of women in public life – as scholars, politicians, businesswomen and doctors – the Taliban launches an assault on the very heart of equality, blowing up girls’ schools. Malala’s father, a prominent school owner, looks to be in grave danger. And yet, on October 9 2012, it was the very embodiment of girls’ education who was targeted: Malala. At point-blank range, she was shot in the head on her school bus, the bullet passing her left eye and going into her shoulder. Two friends were also hit. Amid the blood and the chaos and the confusion, the author does not miss a pertinent parallel: that while her attackers are trying to kill this outspoken proponent of female education, her mother is, for the first time since she left school at the age of six, attending lessons herself. This scene, and the ensuing chapters on her touch-and-go medical condition and bit-by-bit recovery, make for harrowing reading. What brought this story closer to home for me was that Malala is the same age as my daughter. When I heard the news of her attempted assassination, I was quick to make the case to Foreign Secretary William Hague for the UK to offer what assistance it could. What was even more poignant was reading her reflections on her country. I spent time living in Pakistan, and I am now proud to be the government minister with responsibility for that country – the country from which my parents originate. Like Malala, Pakistan is relatively young, but it has suffered a great deal in a short time. In recent years, Pakistan has lost more than 40,000 people in terrorist attacks. It has also endured some of the world’s worst natural disasters, from the 2005 earthquake to the 2010 floods. At the same time, its political pendulum has swung, shakily, between elections and military takeovers, with its first ever full democratic elections taking place only this year. Malala and her family have an answer to some of the man-made problems: education. As she says, describing her father: “Education had been a great gift to him. He believed that lack of education was the root of all Pakistan’s problems. He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls.” That is why the UK government is working with the government of Pakistan to deliver better quality and more widely available education. This will put four million children in school by 2015, recruit and train new teachers, and construct or rebuild more than 20,000 classrooms. She may not have warranted an entry on her family tree, but today Malala is known across the world. “I’m one of the few fathers known by his daughter,” Mr Yousafzai is quoted as saying towards the end of the book. She has turned a potential tragedy into a positive – bringing to the world’s attention that crucial issue of a girl’s right to an education. This is certainly not the last we have heard from Malala.

How Malala Yousafzai's Courage Inspired a Nation: 'We Are No Longer Afraid'

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When the Taliban sent a gunman to kill a 15-year-old girl because she fought publicly for girls' education, they intended to instill fear in anyone who wanted to educate young Pakistani women. The bullet missed her brain, and not only has Malala Yousafzai become an international symbol of inspiration and bravery, but her survival instilled educators with courage -- and is slowly helping make Pakistani schools safer. "They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed," Malala said in a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday. "The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born." 'No One Should Be Shot for Going to School' Northwest Pakistan, where Yousafzai lived and almost died, has been one of the most dangerous places on the planet to go to school -- especially for young girls. In 2010, Taliban threats ran so high, nearly 1,000 government and private schools closed and more than 120,000 girls lost access to school, according to UNICEF. But today, education advocates argue that Yousafzai's survival -- combined with military offensives that eliminated Taliban safe havens -- reduced those threats. In surviving, Yousafzai inspired entire communities to protect their schools and passionately fight for a girl's right to be educated. "The clear message that is being sent by government, individuals, by amazing people like Malala is that we are not going to stop fighting for education," Shirin Lutfeali, a specialist in education and literacy for Save the Children who works in Pakistan and across the region, told ABC News. "She has become a symbol of change: They are going to blow up schools, but we are no longer afraid." That fearlessness was facilitated not only by Malala but also by the Pakistani military pushing out militants who targeted or took over schools. By 2012, after the military's operations, the number of schools destroyed dropped to 30, UNICEF said. "There has been a reduction in attacks. But that's not because the Taliban decided to be nice," said Mosharraf Zaidi, who leads an education campaign group in Islamabad. "It's because they realize that attacking schools is deeply despised by ordinary Pakistanis and because various Pakistan Army campaigns of 'clear and hold' have worked." That is not to say the threats have ended. A 41-year-old teacher named Shahnaz Nazli was assassinated while standing next to her son in March, apparently because she was teaching girls in Khyber Agency, near the Afghan border. In early September, a bomb exploded outside a girls' school in the northwestern town of Bannu, Pakistan, as classes ended, wounding 14. And in June, a bomb gutted a bus in the southwestern Pakistan town of Quetta, killing 14 female students. As long as the attacks continue, campaigners acknowledge they have to fight the fear that forces some parents to keep their daughters at home. Nazli's death sparked a campaign by the U.N.'s special envoy for global education, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He launched a petition demanding more protection for teachers and girls. Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin, were the first to sign. Brown said he feared "a wave of threats, intimidation, burnings and bullets."

"No one should be shot," he said, "for wanting to go to school or wanting to teach girls."

In response, some Pakistani schools have become bunkers, ringed by high walls and guarded by armed gunmen. Others have chosen a low-profile approach: leaving schools unmarked, or even hiding them in living rooms. Perhaps one of the best measures of the continuing effect of the threats -- as well as the government's historic underfunding of education -- is a sobering statistic: On any given day, across the country, 20 percent of teachers don't show up to work, according to the education advocacy group Alif Ailaan, which is headed by Zaidi. The government admits 25 million children in Pakistan are out of school. "The deck," Zaidi said, "is stacked against children." Despite the grim statistics, half a dozen education advocates interviewed by ABC News argued Yousafzai's survival has helped many communities reach a tipping point. In Swat, Pakistan, the district where Yousafzai lived, parents are gaining confidence to defend their children's schooling. "The parents have no other choice. They want their children to get education -- at any cost," said Ahmed Shah, an expert on education and the spokesman for the Swat peace council. "That is the fate for those of us in Pakistan."

Child Protection Committees

Last year, a rural village in eastern Pakistan realized it had a problem. Parents wanted to send their girls to school -- and the girls wanted to attend -- but not everyone felt safe. So with the help of the British NGO Plan International, the town created a "child protection committee." "We appointed a caretaker to walk the girls to and from the town center," said Ata-Ullah Malik, the chairman of the committee. Every day, a woman raps on the metal gates that protect the female students' homes. Every day, she walks the girls to school and returns after classes to escort them home. The community has taken charge of securing its own students -- and school attendance is up. The film, "The Other Malalas," describes the child protection committees and other challenges facing girls in Pakistan. Education advocates argue the best way to ensure schools' safety is for local communities to protect them. For that to happen, parents need to believe in the importance of education. "Once they see the value, they want to protect it," Fiza Shah, who runs the school-building NGO Developments in Literacy, told ABC News. When Shah first started building schools in conservative, rural areas in the late 1990s, she encountered fathers who said they didn't want their girls to learn to write because they might send letters to boyfriends. Now, Shah believes many fathers are realizing schools produce girls who dream of much more than boyfriends. "When we first opened schools, there was resistance. But then the parents saw the differences when girls came home," Shah said. "When they actually see what education is doing, the resistance evaporates." Other programs, like Save the Children's Literacy Boost, are gaining the confidence of parents by reaching young students who wouldn't otherwise attend school -- and keeping them in school. "Compared to a few years back, there's been a major change in attitude and acceptance to education," Ghulam Qadri, Save the Children's Pakistan country director, told ABC News. "We are seeing schools opening up in remote areas where there were no schools previously. "The best criteria is community acceptance," he said in a phone interview from Islamabad. "If the community accepts their education is essential, no one can stop it."

Schools on the Frontlines

Community acceptance is one piece of the puzzle, but another crucial piece is the Pakistan military's campaigns against the Taliban, which have dramatically reduced the threats to schools. For six years, the Pakistani Taliban fought an organized, violent and brutal campaign against the military and Pakistani state institutions, including schools. For many militants, girls' education was a symbol of both Western influence and the authority of a government they wanted to overthrow. But as the military moved into communities mostly run by the Taliban, schools often became the front line: Soldiers and militants both used schools as bases. "Most of the schools that came under attack were being used by the militants or the military as hideouts," said Imtiaz Gul, the executive director of an independent think tank in Islamabad, the Centre for Research and Security Studies. Now that the offensives are over, the schools have been returned to the educators -- and attacks have decreased. Shah, the education specialist from Swat, said that "the situation is OK and peace has been restored to some extent. And now parents want to send their children to schools." Yet, despite the renewed confidence in learning, sending children to school still requires some bravery and a little bit of faith. In communities near the Afghan border, some residents have told local media in the last few months that the Taliban are still using tactics famous from Afghanistan in the 1990s: letters posted to town centers at night warning parents to shun schools and describing girls' education as "a product of the West." In Swat, many of the schools destroyed in the attacks have not reopened, Shah said. And the constant presence of soldiers, while helping keep the peace, is a reminder of how fragile it remains. "They select whatever means they need to spread terror. It may be schools, it may be buses, it may be churches," said Shah. "They want to spread fear among the people. And they are successful."

Send Books, Not Tanks

For Malala Yousafzai, the solution is not a reliance on military action, but the creation of a national commitment to education. Only that, she said, can guarantee students' and parents' desire to learn and educate will not be broken. For many years the Pakistani government has failed to provide enough support for schools: the country spends less than 2 percent of its budget on education. In the U.S., the percentage is about 4 percent, according to the New America Foundation. And according to the U.N., Pakistan's literacy rate is 113th out of 120 countries. Earlier this month, when Pakistan's new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, met with Yousafzai at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sharif pledged to increase the national commitment to 4 percent. The 16-year-old Yousafzai -- whom Sharif recently named the country's roving ambassador for education -- thanked him for his commitment, but argued it was not enough. "I hope this will become 5, 6, 7 percent," she told Sharif, according to Zaidi. Later that same night, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative, the teenager who has become a global icon of courage challenged world leaders to elevate education over war. "Instead of sending weapons, instead of sending tanks to Afghanistan and all these countries which are suffering from terrorism, send books," she said. "Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers. This is the only way we can fight for education."

The 72 Hours That Saved Malala: Doctors Reveal for the First Time How Close She Came to Death

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Malala Yousafzai survived a Taliban bullet that shattered her skull's thinnest bone, driving fragments into her brain. But one day later, as she lay in a medically induced coma in a Peshawar, Pakistan, hospital, her condition suddenly deteriorated, and her doctors did not know whether she would live or die.

The 15-year-old would survive to become a global icon of courage and an international ambassador for girls' education. That part of her remarkable story is widely known, but what hasn't been told before is how close she came to dying in the hospital and how a team of doctors and the most powerful man in Pakistan made sure that did not happen. In exclusive interviews for ABC News and the BBC News on the one-year anniversary of her shooting, Malala's doctors reveal for the first time how she developed a serious infection and suffered from organ failure in the hospital, in part because of inadequate care. They also reveal tense moments leading up to her first, crucial surgery, and how Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of army staff, was personally involved in overseeing the Pakistani army's essential role in saving her life. And they reveal that at the center of this life-and-death drama were two previously unknown doctors from Birmingham, England, without whose intervention Malala might have died on a hospital bed in Peshawar.

Tuesday Oct,9,2012: 'He's a Hero'

On the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, Malala boarded her schoolbus in the northwest Pakistani district of Swat. The gunman had no doubt whom he was looking for. He asked for Malala by name, then pointed a Colt 45 and fired three shots. One bullet hit the left side of Malala's forehead, traveled under her skin the length of her face and then into her shoulder. The news quickly filtered south 200 miles to General Headquarters, Pakistan's equivalent of the Pentagon. Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who had met Malala during previous visits to Swat, immediately realized this was not just another attack in a district where the Taliban still held considerable power. "He recognized that she was a symbol," says Dr. Javid Kayani, an intensive care surgeon and deputy medical director of University Hospitals Birmingham, who happened to be in Islamabad for a meeting with the army chief that day. "He knew that if her life had been extinguished, then that would be a victory to the forces of darkness." The army chief ordered a military helicopter to evacuate Malala to a military hospital in Peshawar, the regional capital. That order alone was unusual: Hundreds of civilians had been targeted for assassination by the Taliban, and few if any had been transported via military helicopter. In the hospital, army neurosurgeon Col. Junaid Khan told ABC/BBC News that Malala was conscious but "restless and agitated." She seemed stable, and Khan kept a close eye on her. Four hours later, though, her condition deteriorated. Khan realized the bullet had caused Yousafzai's brain to swell and that she needed emergency surgery to remove a portion of her skull to relieve the pressure. But Khan had to fight for permission. According to Drs. Javid Kayani and Fiona Reynolds, a pediatric intensive care consultant from Birmingham, who was also in Islamabad that day, Yousafzai's family did not trust Khan because he looked so young. Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, wanted a civilian doctor to see her. There was also a push to evacuate her immediately to Dubai. But by late evening, Khan told Malala's father there was no choice: Khan had to perform the surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain. The risks were high.

"The part of the brain that was involved was concerned not only with speech, not only the speech centers but also those centers which are involved in controlling or giving power to the right arm and right leg," Khan said in an interview. "So contemplating surgery in this very sensitive area can have risks in terms of ... losing the speech or losing the power in the opposite part of the body, meaning the person can be paralyzed afterward." Khan pushed Malala's father for permission. "There are risks," Khan said, "but if you foresee that this patient warrants an operation and if you don't do an operation, she will lose her life, then you're going to take all the chances." The craniotomy began after midnight. Khan and his team removed a portion of her skull, removed blood clots on her brain and put Malala on a ventilator. To this day, Reynolds and Kayani say that without Khan fighting to perform that surgery, Malala would not be here. "That first surgery saved her life. Junaid operated when the world was looking at him," Reynolds told ABC/BBC News. "Surgery's about choosing the right time to do the right operation, and Junaid did that and he did the operation and I've got no doubt that he saved her life. He's a hero." As Kayani put it in an interview: "Malala is alive today, and two people can claim credit for that: One is the surgeon who operated on her in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and the other is the chief of army staff. If he had not been personally involved, Malala would not have survived beyond Swat." The surgery saved her life, but she was not out of the woods. And that is where Kayani and Reynolds' portion of the story begins.

Wednesday: 'The quality of the care may actually cause her not to survive'

As the sun broke through on Wednesday morning, Kayani and Reynolds woke up in Islamabad on a prearranged visit to help the Pakistani military set up a liver transplant program. They met with the army chief just hours after Malala's initial surgery. As they spoke in his office, two very large TV screens showed news footage of the young Pakistani girl -- whom Reynolds had never heard of. The meeting ended without any mention of Malala, and Reynolds was about to go shopping. But that's when -- at Dr. Kayani's urging -- the military asked for their help, changing both of their lives forever. "Gen. Kayani had been given conflicting stories about her condition, and he wasn't sure about what to do next and whether he should move her and where he should move her to," Reynolds said in an interview. "They just wanted to know what I thought as a sort of expert from outside the country and someone who deals with children with head injuries all the time." Reynolds was told there was some risk in flying to Peshawar, but Reynolds didn't hesitate: "[Malala had] been shot because she wanted an education, and I was in Pakistan because I'm a woman with an education. So I couldn't say no." Twenty-four hours after Malala was shot, Kayani and Reynolds flew to Peshawar on a military helicopter to evaluate the situation and meet Khan. Both praised his decision to operate, but Reynolds was shocked at the hospital's facilities. The intensive care unit had one sink, which didn't work. The doctors were measuring Malala's blood pressure with a cuff every few hours rather than with an arterial line, which measures the pressure every few seconds. Reynolds worried that the lack of modern facilities were putting Malala's life -- and her ability to recover -- in jeopardy. "They had absolutely done the right surgery at the right time and had done it well," she said, "but there was also the possibility that the quality of the intensive care may actually cause her not to survive." The visit ran into the afternoon, and Reynolds was running out of time. She needed to decide on a course of action before the sun set. Pakistani military helicopters do not fly at night, and she was not allowed to spend the night in Peshawar. As she left, Reynolds urged Malala's doctors to change the ventilator settings to raise her carbon dioxide and increase blood flow to the brain. But more important was to get Malala out of there, fast. Kayani and Reynolds flew back to Rawalpindi and met with Pakistan's surgeon general. Reynolds urged him to bring Malala to the state-of-the-art hospital in Rawalpindi. Her life was "absolutely" in danger, Reynolds told the surgeon general, "and so was the quality of her recovery. ... The swelling that the bullet caused was very close and it would have been quite easy for her to have ended up looking like someone who'd had a stroke." But the doctors in Peshawar refused, believing her condition too fragile. So Reynolds and Kayani urged the surgeon general to dispatch his best doctors from Rawalpindi to Peshawar. Just before midnight, he agreed. The head of Rawalpindi's intensive care unit and another doctor drove the two hours to Peshawar to look after Malala for the night. It was yet another decision that saved her life. "The military asked, can we wait until morning?" Kayani remembers. "We said no."

Thursday: 'There Is Hope'

The doctors' fears proved true. Malala's condition had rapidly deteriorated. Reynolds recites the long list of ailments Malala was suffering from: She had a serious infection, her blood was not clotting properly, her blood acid had gone up, her blood pressure was unstable, her heart and circulation were failing, her kidneys had shut down and the doctors believed she had gone septic. The doctors sent from Rawalpindi had prevented her from dying. But that's all they could do in Peshawar, and Malala was in bad shape. "She'd now gone from being a patient with a head injury to a patient who had systemic problems, probably with infection, and her organs were shutting down," Reynolds said. Kayani and Reynolds canceled their return home to Birmingham. Instead, they once again flew to Peshawar, this time in a helicopter with a mobile intensive care unit on board. While Malala remained sedated, the team transported her back to Rawalpindi. Armed soldiers escorted its convoy to the hospital. By this time, Malala had undergone a blood transfusion, developed an infection and was "physiologically very unstable," Reynolds said. "For the first six hours I was terribly worried about her." Over the next 24 hours, the team changed the antibiotics, stabilized her blood pressure, averted any need for dialysis and got her off a large dose of adrenaline. "In my head she went back to being a patient with a head injury who had got over an infection, and at that point I thought she was probably going to survive," Reynolds said. On the day Malala was moved, her father, Ziauddin, asked Reynolds what would happen. "He asked me if there was any hope. And my response to that was, the only reason I'm here is because there is some hope. And he got quite emotional at that point," Reynolds told ABC's Diane Sawyer. "I told him, 'I think she's going to make it,' and he kissed my hand, which I think is quite unusual for a Pakistani man." The next day, on Friday afternoon, she remembers, "I was convinced she was going to survive, and I shared that with her father. And he cried."

Friday: Birmingham

By Friday, Malala Yousafzai's name was on every major news program across the world. The Taliban claimed credit for attacking her and promised to finish the job. The military surrounded the hospital with soldiers. Snipers were posted on the roof. "The military realized they couldn't afford an attack," Kayani told ABC News. "So the hospital literally went into lockdown." Security fears helped push along a conversation that was sensitive in Pakistan: whether to send Malala abroad for treatment and recovery. The army and Malala's doctors knew that while she could receive good emergency care in Rawalpindi, she could not receive the rehabilitative treatment she would need anywhere in Pakistan. Offers poured in from the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, offering admittance to specialized hospitals where Malala could not only be cared for but could also begin the slow process of retraining her damaged brain.

But the army was worried about the politics, according to the doctors. Already, some Pakistanis called the story a "drama," code for fictionalized. Some claimed Malala and her father were CIA spies, and the near-death experience had been cooked up by the United States in order to get the Pakistani military to expand its offensives along the Afghan border. The army turned down the U.S. offers, according to Kayani, because "if she had gone to the states, conspiracy theorists would have been quote 'proven.' The army chief did not want that spin. If he could exclusively prove that the Taliban engineered the attack, he might get the specific wave of revulsion he was looking for to help prepare a public campaign against the Taliban." That campaign never took place. But the army and her doctors quickly came to a consensus: The best destination was Birmingham. The hospital where Kayani worked, the Queen Elizabeth Medical Center, was a worldwide leader in emergency and rehabilitative care -- the United Kingdom's equivalent of Water Reed National Medical Center -- where every British soldier injured in Iraq and Afghanistan receives care. And both Kayani and Reynolds lived in Birmingham and could help oversee Malala's recovery if she were brain damaged, or lost the ability to walk or use her right hand or leg. "Everything she would need," Reynolds told Malala's parents, "would be available in Birmingham." Kayani worked behind the scenes with the hospital and the U.K. High Commission in Islamabad. Diplomats cut through the red tape and secured both Pakistani and British government permission to send her to Birmingham. There was only one hitch: Malala's whole family would not be able travel with her. Ziauddin, her father, could come, but he did not want to leave his wife and sons. So Malala had to fly alone. Her father approached Reynolds and asked an extraordinary favor. Once she arrived in the United Kingdom, Malala would be under the care of the Pakistani high commissioner. But between Pakistan and the U.K., she needed someone else in charge. Ziauddin Yousafzai asked Reynolds to become Malala's guardian. "He just said, look after her," Reynolds remembers. To this day, she feels as though she is looking after Malala. The flight to Birmingham left Monday. When Ziauddin finally arrived in Birmingham, 11 days after Malala, he held a news conference in which he acknowledged how close he had come to losing his only daughter. He said he had drafted funeral plans. He called her survival a "miracle." "My daughter is my companion. I love her. There were tears in our eyes when we first saw her. But it was tears of happiness," he told a group of reporters, many of whom were crying with him as he shared his story. He called the man who shot her "an agent of Satan." But she survived, he concluded, because "I found angels on my side." Postscript: 'The Bravest Girl on the Planet' Both Kayani and Reynolds have stayed in touch with Malala and her family over the past year and helped with her recovery. Reynolds told ABC News: "I think she will make an absolutely complete physical recovery." Kayani, like so many, is awed by what Malala is capable of. "She certainly has got more courage than a lot of men that I know," he told ABC News. "She certainly has got more courage than I have got. I don't think it's hubris to say that she is probably one of the bravest girls on the planet."

Teen activist Malala relives horror of Taliban shooting in autobiography

http://www.rawstory.com/

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai tells of the moment she was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education in her new autobiography out Tuesday, amid speculation that she may be about to become the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb, “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban” tells of the 16-year-old’s terror as two gunmen boarded her schoolbus on October 9, 2012 and shot her in the head. “My friends say he fired three shots, one after another,” she writes.“By the time we got to the hospital my long hair and Moniba’s lap were full of blood.” The book describes Malala’s life under the Taliban’s brutal rule in northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley in the mid-2000s, hints at her ambition to enter Pakistani politics, and even describes her father’s brief flirtation with Islamic fundamentalism as a youngster. Now living in Britain’s second city Birmingham, where she was flown for specialist treatment after the shooting, it also tells of her homesickness and her struggle to adjust to life in England. A competitive schoolgirl who loves to be top of the class, the book reveals she is a fan of Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber and the “Twilight” series of vampire romance novels. Malala had become well-known in Pakistan as a young campaigner for girls’ right to attend school after the Taliban took control of Swat in 2007, speaking out against the militants’ ban on female education and their bombing of local schools. She describes how she received death threats in the months before the assassination. “At night I would wait until everyone was asleep,” she writes. “Then I’d check every single door and window.”She adds: “I don’t know why, but hearing I was being targeted did not worry me. It seemed to me that everyone knows they will die one day. “So I should do whatever I want to do.” The book describes public floggings by the Taliban, their ban on television, dancing and music, and the family’s decision to flee Swat along with nearly one million others in 2009 amid heavy fighting between the militants and Pakistani troops. Later it details her surgeons’ frantic battle to save her life and her panic at waking up in a hospital thousands of miles from home. The book is full of praise for Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousafzai, describing how he worked to set up his own school and risked his life by speaking out against the Taliban. She angrily rejects criticism that he pushed her too hard to campaign alongside him — “like a tennis dad trying to create a champion” — or has used her as a mouthpiece “as if I don’t have my own mind”. The book reveals that Malala’s father briefly considered becoming a jihadist when he was a teenager and going to fight in neighbouring Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion in 1979. She also acknowledges that she, like her father, has been the target of considerable criticism at home, with many regarding her as a stooge of the West. Malala goes on to describe the family’s homesickness and her views on life in England, including her horror when she first saw scantily-clad girls going out at night in Birmingham, and her amazement at seeing men and women socialising openly in coffee shops. She has struggled to make friends at her English school, she reveals, and still spends hours talking to her friends in Swat using Skype. However, she adds there is also much to like about life in England — “people follow the rules, they respect policemen and everything happens on time,” she writes. “I see women having jobs we couldn’t imagine in Swat.” She frequently namechecks the late former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as a heroine, and makes clear her ambition to one day return to her homeland and become a politician — despite continued threats from the Taliban that they will attack her again if given the chance. “I was spared for a reason — to use my life for helping people,” she writes. Malala is among the favourites for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded on Friday.

Video: ''Malala Yousafzai Exclusive Interview With Diane Sawyer''