Malala Yousufzai – the story of Pakistan’s heroine in photos

THE Taliban shot 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai in the head on October 9 2012. The gunman wanted Malala dead. Her crime? Promoting education for women and girls in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. At the suggestion of her father, she had blogged anonymously for the BBC. Malala made a stand. After the assassination attempt, she was flown from Mingora to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. A few things make you proud to be British. This is one. Malala is lucky to be alive. She will undergo reconstructive cranial surgery. For now and the foreseeable future she will live with her father Ziauddin, mother Toorpekai and younger brothers Khushal and Atul in the Midlands. The Pakistani government made Ziauddin education attaché at the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham, a three-year post, a move that means the family can legally live in the UK. Ziauddin is an English graduate from a well-established local family who set up a private girls’ school. No-one has been arrested for the heinous crime. This is the story in photos:

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A Pakistani police officer stands guard outside the college which was named after Malala Yousufzai, who was shot and injured by the Taliban, in Swat, Pakistan on Friday, Dec 21, 2012. A 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education has urged Pakistan to reverse a decision to rename a college in her honor to avert militant attacks on students, an official said Friday. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)