Malala Yousafzai, Girl Shot by Taliban, Was Drawn to Politics by Dad

Correction Appended: Oct. 17, 2012 Malala Yousafzai is only 14 years old, but she has always come off as preternaturally mature, able — even at 11 — to talk about serious issues like education and terrorism and her native Pakistan’s troubled relations with India. The attempt on her life and the ensuing medical emergency have made her a hero to a greater audience. But in the patriarchal and conservative Muslim world she grew up in, a pioneer like Malala would not have been possible without another hero: her father. The saga “is a story about a father and a daughter, more than a story about a girl,” says Adam Ellick, a journalist and documentary filmmaker who covered the 2009 shutdown of the schools in the Swat Valley because of Taliban threats that led to the displacement of the Yousafzai family and thousands of others. Ziauddin Yousafzai founded the Khushal School and College that his daughter attends in the city of Mingora. (MORE: How Malala Yousafzai May Affect Pakistan’s Culture Wars)

South Asia | Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. The night was filled with the noise of artillery fire and I woke up three times. Today is 15 January, the last day before the Taleban's edict comes into effect, and my friend was discussing homework as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Today, I also read the diary written for the BBC (in Urdu) and published in the newspaper. My father said that some days ago someone brought the printout of this diary saying how wonderful it was. I was in a bad mood while going to school because winter vacations are starting from tomorrow. In the past the reopening date was always announced clearly.