The girl who changed Pakistan

Shehrbano Taseer takes an insider’s look at the 15-year-old girl who may finally turn the tide on extremism

THE teenage girls chatted to each other as the school bus rattled along the country road. Students from a girls’ high school in Swat, they had just finished a term paper, and their joy was evident as they broke into another Pashto song. About a mile outside the city of Mingora, two men flagged down and boarded the bus, one of them pulling out a gun.

“Which one of you is Malala Yousafzai?” he demanded. No one spoke — some out of loyalty, others out of fear. But, unconsciously, their eyes turned to Malala.