The teenage activist, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, is now out of the hospital -- and ready to continue the work that nearly got her killed.
Yesterday, people around the world watched in admiration and awe a clip from an interview
with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head
by the Taliban for standing up for girls' education. "I want every girl,
every child to be educated," she said bravely in comments given before
she had surgery at a hospital in England-apparently, she is now
recovering well-and discussed the new Malala Fund to do just that. The
fund's inaugural grant will help girls from the Swat Valley, where
Malala is from, receive an education instead of entering the workforce
prematurely.
Girls' education in Pakistan, however, needs more than Malala's determination and courage. While the Taliban have certainly terrorized parts of the country, they are not to blame for the sorry state of girls' education in Pakistan. Over the years, Pakistan's various governments have made halfhearted efforts to address the shameful gender gap, but the proof of their failure is in the numbers: