Malala Yousafzai (right), the Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban after campaigning for girls’ education, stands next to her school friends Kainat Riaz (left) and Shazia Ramzan (centre) during the first Global Citizenship Commission meeting at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland yesterday.
AFP/London
Campaigning Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was reunited yesterday with two friends who were injured in the Taliban attempt to kill her.
Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan met Malala during an event at Edinburgh University in Scotland, the first time they have seen her since the attack.
A Taliban gunman boarded the girls’ school bus in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley in October 2012 and opened fire at Malala to punish her for championing girls’ rights to education.
Malala, now 16, was shot in the head while Kainat and Shazia were both wounded in the crossfire.
All three girls are now living and studying in Britain. Malala received medical treatment for her injuries at a British hospital.
They were the guests of honour at the launch yesterday of the Global Citizenship Commission, a body of leaders representing politics, religious institutions, law and philanthropy.
“After I was shot the terrorists thought that I would not continue the struggle for education, but not only did I not stop my campaign but now Kainat and Shazia are with me and they are also supporting me,” Malala told the event.
“They are not afraid, we are not afraid and now people are supporting us and that is the greatest courage, and that is the weapon that we have got, the unity and togetherness.”
Malala was also presented with an honorary masters degree from the university by former British prime minister Gordon Brown, who has backed her campaign.
The event is the latest in a series to fete Malala’s work.
She went to Buckingham Palace on Friday to meet Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, while last week she met US President Barack Obama.
Malala met Queen Elizabeth at a reception for youth, education and the Commonwealth.
Accompanied by her father, Malala gave the queen a copy of her autobiography, I Am Malala.
Malala told the queen, who is head of the 53-nation Commonwealth that includes Pakistan, that she was passionate about every child around the world having a right to an education.
Telling the monarch of her trip to the palace, Malala said: “It is not just an invitation, it is an honour for me, and I hope we all work together for the education of every child, and especially in this country as well.”
Prince Philip, 92, who is known for his occasional gaffes, quipped: “There’s a thing about children going to school—they go to school because the parents don’t want them in the house.”
The comment that left Malala covering her face in a fit of giggles.
The reception, in the palace’s White Drawing Room, was attended by 350 guests from academic institutions around the world.
Malala was among the favourites to win the Nobel Peace Prize this month, but she lost out to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
