Malala: A beacon of courage and strength

A teenager shot in the head by the Taliban followed in the footsteps of some of the world’s great leaders when she became the latest recipient of the Tipperary International Peace Award.

Malala Yousafzai, 16, was attacked by Taliban gunmen last October after she campaigned for girls’ right to go to school without fear in a part of Pakistan where fundamentalists had once imposed Sharia law.

Since the age of 11, Malala had been secretly writing a blog for the BBC which described the struggles faced by girls trying to receive an education under the Taliban. When her identity was uncovered, a Taliban militia boarded her school bus and shot her at point-blank range.