Shot for Going to School

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

Malala Yousafzai is the world's most famous schoolgirl.

I dream for all the children that they should go to their school,

because it is their right, their basic right.

She became a hero to millions because she dared to stand up

to some of the most violent and repressive men, the Taliban.

One bullet, in from here.

They want to spread fear.

She was shot in the head for campaigning for girls to be

allowed to go to school in Pakistan.

The Taliban said it was responsible for a gun attack on a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

Malala's story is now known all over the world.

I'm Nel Hedayat and for me it was especially moving

because I had fled from a land of Islamic extremists.

This is Nelofar. She was just four years old.

Like Malala, I also went to school in Pakistan.

Now, I am heading back there to trace Malala's story.

This is clearly one of the most dangerous places I have ever been.

A place where they blow up schools.

I cannot tell you what it feels like to be in here.

Debris, shrapnel, has just flown out.

Can you imagine if there were people in here?

And where there are many other girls like Malala

who are risking their lives to get an education.

-TRANSLATION:

-When he pulled out a gun and started to shoot, then I thought, this is it.

Maybe we won't survive.

-This is the blood of a child.

-Oh, God.

Shake my hand? Yes. Bye-bye.

They know what they are doing when they attack these sorts of places.

They just steal the kids' future in one instant.

I had a terrible dream yesterday, with military helicopters

and the Taliban.

I've had such dreams

since the launch of the military operation in Swat.

In 2008, Malala Yusufzai started writing an anonymous blog,

so people like me could read about her life under Taliban rule

in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

"My friend came up to me and said,

"For God's sake, answer me honestly, is our school going to be attacked by the Taliban?"

It was the first time anyone had written a first hand account of

day to day life under this repressive regime, let alone an 11-year-old.

It is hard to get your brain in gear to think about this.

So she writes on the fourth of January,

"Today I did some household chores, my homework and played with my brother.

"But my heart was beating fast, as I have to go to school tomorrow."

So, it is this weird combination of doing things that are totally

ordinary, doing a bit of homework, playing with your brother,

and then going to bed that night with your heart pumping

because you know you have to go to school tomorrow.

When the Taliban tried to stop girls from being educated,

most people were too scared to send their children to school.

But Malala insisted on going

and was brave enough to campaign publicly.

Her courage in speaking out began to get noticed around the world,

but it also made her a target for the Taliban.

She is so intelligent and she knows what she's talking about.

She is living it.

And she knew, even at that age, that her message had to get out

if things were going to change.

And that's what she did.

Malala's story has a special significance for me.

Now I live in the UK, but until I was seven,

I had a very similar life to hers.

I was born in Afghanistan, and like most people from that region, I'm Muslim.

When I was a year old,

I fled with my mum across the border to Peshawar in Pakistan.

-This is you, I had to take you with me.

-Everywhere?

Before the school. Because there wasn't anybody to look after you.

We had left Afghanistan to escape the war with the Mujahideen,

many of whom were Islamic fundamentalists like the Taliban.

Every day, hundreds of rockets were firing in Afghanistan

and bombs bombing so life was very hard to survive.

So, yeah, I had to take you and get out of the country, and I did.

I had a burkha put on myself and you were in my arms.

And we ran, through the mountain and deserts.

It was very hard to get to Pakistan.

The amount of effort...you had to go to, to get me safe,

that goes beyond what a mother needs to do.

We settled in Peshawar,

in the same region that Malala would later grow up in.

My mum worked for a charity helping refugee women.

What was it like for you as a woman living in Pakistan?

For Pakistani women I didn't see any problem.

They were much more freer than now, believe me.

At that time, there were... girls were going to school.

You went to a school there and there was no problem.

-There was no problem with me going to school.

-No, no.

Things have changed for the worse since I left Pakistan 18 years ago.

It's now one of the most dangerous countries on earth.

I've been told there are other girls fighting for their education

just like Malala.

So I'm going back there to find out.

With nearly 200 million people,

Pakistan has the sixth largest population in the world,

and most are Muslims.

The Pakistani Taliban have been waging a war

against the government to bring in a more extreme version of Islam.

My first stop is the capital, Islamabad, and it's not what I was expecting.

Islamabad seems calm and pretty, with hedges and flowers, really orderly.

I've just seen school girls going off to school, coming out of school,

people shopping, just doing very, very normal things.

It's as if these people here in Islamabad are about as far

away from Malala as I was in London.

It just doesn't seem to register here.

I'm off to meet another schoolgirl who comes from the Swat Valley,

where Malala lived.

Hina Khan is 18, two years older than Malala.

Are those awards yours?

Yes.

Hina's family left the Swat Valley six years ago to

escape the Taliban.

What kind of things did the Taliban do to people to make

the situation so bad?

-TRANSLATION:

-There were bomb blasts and schools started closing.

All the girls schools in our area were blown up.

When the situation was bad in Swat,

they flogged a girl who went out alone,

and they threw acid in the face of another girl who went out alone.

Like Malala, Hina wasn't prepared to keep quiet about what was happening.

-This is the press conference.

-That's the press conference.

When she arrived in Islamabad, she held a press conference.

Why did you do it?

I saved myself, but I felt mean leaving my friends behind.

That's why I did what I did, so the government would know,

and help my friends and other girls.

Hina had openly criticised the Taliban.

The next day, they marked her house with a red cross.

The first time, my father received a phone call threatening us.

Now we have had another red cross

and more threatening phone calls, and we are thinking of moving again.

So Malala is not the only schoolgirl to have been

targeted by the Taliban.

The red cross may now be gone from Hina's gate,

but she still lives in constant fear of reprisals.

And I'm shocked by what she's told me about life under Taliban rule.

There's like this video of the Taliban beating a 17-year-old girl

because they thought she was seeing a married man.

So I'm just looking for that online.

SCREAMING

In Swat they rule by fear.

They policed the area with public floggings and executions, displaying

bodies as a warning to people not to step outside their interpretation

of Islamic law, like this 17-year-old is supposed to have done.

SCREAMING

If you were going to torture a woman by flogging her, beating her,

why would you have an audience of men?

There's at least 30 guys there.

One of the people standing there watching the woman get beaten up.

Woman?

She's a 17-year-old girl. One of them came and held her down.

That's not justice, that's humiliation.

I can't believe they had to live through that.

Most of us know the Taliban from Afghanistan,

where they're fighting a war against British troops.

Here in Pakistan, they're from the same ethnic group, the Pashtuns.

They want to take over the country

and bring in their own extreme version of Islam.

In 2007, they took control of the Swat Valley in the North

where Malala lived.

They banned girls like her from going to school

and began systematically destroying them.

By the time the Pakistani Army took back control of the area,

400 schools had been bombed.

But the attacks didn't stop, they just moved to neighbouring areas.

The Taliban's heartland stretches across the northern

mountains of Pakistan.

And you don't have to travel more than a hundred kilometres

from the capital before you're into Taliban country.

It's a dangerous place to be and I'm heading there now.

I want to see for myself the damage they're still inflicting.

So we're in Swabi and on our way to a school now that's been destroyed,

it's been attacked.

There is a three car escort, we're in the middle,

there's a car in front, a car behind

with all really different people. There's ex-military people here,

there's organisers, there's officials, there's even a councilman who's got

to take us there because it's quite a dangerous area to be in.

The Taliban aren't in government here, but they manage to

make their presence felt through frequent acts of violence.

And they don't like strangers, so I'm dressed in the traditional

Salwar Kameez to try to fit in as much as possible.

This high school was targeted recently by the Taliban.

Salaam aleikum.

Thank you very much for letting us come here.

So the whole building...

How did the attack happen?

Despite the attack, lessons have continued.

-So the kids still come here?

-Yes.

-That's very brave.

Are you not scared that they'll come back?

We've only been here 20 minutes

but it's risky having foreigners looking around.

We've been asked politely to leave, as quick as possible, because

it's not safe here, so although he's telling me that the

kids have come back the next day, I'm still being told to leave.

In this area, the Taliban have good information networks,

and it won't take long for them to find out we're here.

Can we go to the other school?

Yes, we're just going to this one

and then we really have to...

-The news is in the air now.

-That we're here?

-Yes, we are here.

-So they know we're here.

-Yeah.

81 schools were attacked in this region alone last year.

It's like they're systematically just trying to destroy every single one.

The wall has been ripped off.

This school just a few miles down the road was also bombed.

Unlike the last school,

it was so badly damaged that it never reopened.

Stuff has hit everything, debris, shrapnel has just flown out

and can you imagine if there are people in here?

The bomb was placed in a classroom doorway.

This happened here?

How deep is this?

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

The whole thing?

This entire wall here was blown up.

This is just pointless.

That's another school out of action, and for the Taliban another victory.

But now they've started to target the people who teach in the schools as well.

The road we're on at the moment is the road where

a group of health workers, teachers were ambushed, attacked, and six women were killed.

In January, four gunmen on motorcycles ambushed

a minibus as it was driving workers to a school

and health centre in the village of Sher Afzal Banda.

Seven people were killed, six of them women.

I've come to the village where the women worked to meet Mohammed Saeed,

a local councillor who knew the women and their families.

Salaam aleikum.

This is your area, this is your district from where you work?

The little boy was with his mother.

She was killed, but he survived.

I can't forget the little boy's face.

Since the attack happened, the school

and health centre have remained closed because people are scared.

Word has got round that I'm here

and some of the children are hopeful I might be their new teacher.

Whilst I was in here talking to the councillor, all these kids

have been gathering and this was the school where most of these

kids would go and come to learn, and literally they're all here.

Hello, salaam aleikum.

I'm very sorry, I'm very sorry.

This is your school.

They know what they're doing when they attack these sorts of places.

They rip the heart and soul out of the local community.

They just steal the kids' future in one instant.

There's nothing physically wrong here.

This place functions, it works,

but the fear in them.

The women have their own living quarters

away from the eyes of the men, where they don't have to cover themselves.

They're intrigued to meet a foreigner like me.

If you want people to treat you in a good way, you come to a village. Fact of life.

Oh, thank you so much! Thank you!

Thank you! You're very kind!

As hospitable as they are, there's

a fear that if we stay too long, we might draw unwelcome attention.

We have to go now. They say they're too scared.

Once again,

we have to keep moving to stay one step ahead of the Taliban.

Swabi and the capital Islamabad are

about 100kms apart, but I promise you

that it feels like you're going back in time not in kilometres.

What I'm talking about is attitudes.

You get the most raw qualities of humanity in somewhere like that.

You get people who are willing to kill and murder and maim for what

they believe in or what they think is right, and then you get some

of the best hospitality that you've ever seen anywhere in the world.

When the Taliban shot Malala in October last year,

the news reverberated around the whole world.

A 14-year-old activist, a young girl was shot

and wounded by Taliban gunmen.

She was on her way home from school when she was fired on.

Religious extremists planned to assassinate

her on her school bus.

She is still in a critical condition.

All eyes were focused on Malala's fight for life,

but two other girls had also been injured in the attack.

I'm actually really excited because the girls are staying at this hotel.

They've come down to Islamabad just to see me,

and they were actually on the minibus when the attack

took place, so I just want to go and see them and find out what happened.

Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan were friends of Malala

and were sitting next to her on the bus on the day she was shot.

Hi, salaam aleikum.

-I'm Shazia.

-Shazia, hi.

-Kainat.

-Kainat, hi!

It's lovely to be here and finally meet you.

Let's sit down. Let's sit down. Do you want to sit there?

The girls have travelled down with their fathers.

They want to tell me about what happened that day.

TRANSLATION: This attack happened all of a sudden.

We were coming back from school during exams and on the way, two boys stopped the bus and asked,

-"Which one of you is Malala?"

-They asked for her?

Yes, they did!

-TRANSLATION:

-So, all of us girls sitting in the van looked at Malala

and then at the gunman.

And he realised that since we were looking at one girl,

it must be Malala.

So he fired at her.

I was sitting next to Malala, very close to her. Like this.

Yes.

So then, he fired at me, and Kainat was sitting next to me

and she was also hit.

When he started to shoot what went through your head?

Could you even think?

No, we didn't think about how we felt, but when he pulled out

the gun and started to shoot, then I thought "This is it."

"Maybe we won't survive." We were staring death in the face!

The minibus they were travelling in was tiny, unprotected and open.

TRANSLATION: And when I looked at Malala, she was bleeding a lot.

She seemed in a very bad way.

And I thought it must be a joke, I could not believe it was real.

But when I realised that I was also injured, then...

-Did you not feel it? You didn't know?

-No.

-You didn't feel the bullet? Nothing?

-No.

Nothing.

But we were concentrating on Malala.

We were not concerned about whether we had been hit or not.

She was crying and shouting.

Then the driver came round the back,

and he saw that all three of us were injured.

Malala was on the floor bleeding a lot,

so he said he must take us directly to the emergency centre.

Malala was taken by helicopter

to a military hospital in Peshawar

in a critical condition.

Keinaat had been shot in the neck and Shazia in the shoulder and hand.

But the bullets hadn't hit any vital organs

and they were returned home after treatment.

Were you worried that he was going to come back?

I couldn't sleep at all that night.

I slept with my mum and held her hand, and kept telling her,

"I won't let you go." I was so scared.

And when I slept, I kept shouting in my sleep.

I didn't sleep properly for four or five days.

Three days later, Malala was airlifted out of the country

to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham,

where her lifesaving treatment continued.

A few months later, she underwent surgery

to reconstruct the side of her face.

If she'd remained in Pakistan,

she would have been under constant threat from the Taliban.

Shazia and Kainaat have soldiers

permanently posted outside their homes to protect them.

Do you still feel like they are going to do something to you?

A month after the attack, there was

a bomb blast at a neighbour's house,

right behind our house.

A girl my age and her grandmother both died.

If the Army wasn't there to protect us, we might not still be here.

No-one knows what will happen in the future.

I'm impressed with Kainaat and Shazia's courage

in the face of such danger.

To them, education is THAT important.

Their families are relatively well-off, but for many girls,

education is an escape route out of grinding poverty.

-HE CHANTS

-In the name of Allah, the most beneficent...

It's estimated one in three children don't have enough food to eat.

Going to school gives them hope of a better life.

Salaam Alaikum.

So this is your school?

'Ayub Khan has converted a public park in Islamabad

'into a night school for underprivileged children

'who otherwise wouldn't get an education.'

In the constitution of the Pakistani government,

it says that education is the right of children.

Any child, every child.

So why do you have to teach these kids in a park?

I don't understand.

TRANSLATION: Actually, these are the children of parents who can't afford

to send them to school, and make them work instead.

I've found them roaming in the streets.

Some were picking up litter, some were working.

So I gave them paper and pencils from my own pocket

and started teaching them.

Most of the children here have to work

to earn money for their families.

But they come here afterwards to learn.

Reading, writing, maths and even foreign languages

are all on Master Ayub's syllabus.

Some of his pupils also help out with teaching as well as studying.

This student came to me in class one.

She was a tiny girl, just like these ones.

-IN ENGLISH:

-My name is Mehwish.

-TRANSLATION:

-One day, Sir saw me with my mother,

and asked why I was working.

I said that I don't go to school because we don't have enough money.

-And now you're a teacher?

-Yes.

-You must be quite proud?

-Yes.

I think I'm amongst some of the coolest people on the planet,

because these kids, whatever walk of life they've come from,

they're here because they understand the value of education.

They have got nothing.

The only thing they have is that paper and pen in their hands

and they're hoping that that's going to take them to a better life.

CHILDREN REPEAT LESSONS BACK

One, two, three, four, five, six!

After school's over, 12-year-old Mehwish invites me

to come home with her to meet her family.

This is very hard every day with your brothers and sisters.

-TRANSLATION:

-Yes, it's really difficult because we often have to

go up and down to get water,

and sometimes there is no water. It's hard work.

Yeah, I couldn't do this every day.

Mehwish lives in the foothills on the edge of Islamabad

and walks for an hour to get to and from school

with her brothers and sisters.

Three generations share one home.

-She is my grandmother.

-Salaam aleikum.

THEY EXCHANGE GREETINGS

-This is my mother.

-Salaam aleikum.

And she is my aunt.

Thank you!

'12 people live in this two-room house.'

-All of you live here?

-Yes.

Who sleeps where? Where's your bed?

-She sleeps here.

-Ah, OK, so your auntie sleeps here?

-And my uncle sleeps there on that bed.

-OK.

My grandma sleeps here, and the children sleep on the floor.

-You too?

-Yes.

-How many kids sleep on the floor?

All the cooking is done outside on an open fire.

There's no gas and no electricity.

The family live on less than two dollars a day.

-But you are very happy.

-Yes, I am very, very happy.

When I finish my studies, we will have money.

At the moment, things are not so good,

but we must thank Allah for whatever he has given us.

There are many people who don't have a roof over their head,

they don't even have enough to eat.

When you were small, did you go to school ever?

-TRANSLATION:

-We couldn't afford to go to school.

How important do you think school is for your daughter's life?

It's my dream that she will get a high-level government job

and will be able to provide for her family better than I could.

This is my dream.

I also wish that my mum's dream comes true soon.

And I want to become a teacher!

If Mehwish can become a teacher, she can earn enough

to lift her family out of poverty

and help other children to do the same.

Thank you very much. Come here, you.

For people like her,

getting an education is an escape route to a better life.

Bye!

She's doing so much with so little that I just look at her in awe.

If people like Mehwish and the principal,

if they continued, if there was more of them,

there is no limits to what Pakistan could achieve.

If they were allowed to.

If the poverty weren't there,

if the threat of being shot in the head because you want to be better,

if these things weren't there,

and people like Mehwish were allowed to thrive, you know...

they would be the future.

So far, the Taliban have carried out

their campaign against girls' education

in their traditional heartland of Northern Pakistan.

And people like Mehwish have felt safe

going to school in the big cities.

But things are changing.

I'm flying 1,000 kilometres south to Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi.

21 million people live here.

This is the country's financial and commercial hub,

home to its largest port and the nerve centre of its economy

Karachi does feel really, really different... Ooh, hi!

..to Islamabad.

'It's also its crime capital.

'Last year, there were more than 2,000 reported killings.

'That's one every four hours.'

Everyone I've met so far has warned me about this place.

They've said, "You'd better watch out."

And there are rumours going around

that this is the next spot for the Taliban.

This is where they want to gain control.

This is a Mecca for gangland violence,

and now the Taliban have moved

into the poorer Pashtun areas on the fringes of the city.

They've been attacking police stations, killing officers,

and in some neighbourhoods,

they've even started their own justice system.

That area behind me is like a no-go area,

because the Taliban basically control it.

No ambulance is going to go in there if you're sick,

the police aren't going to go in if you need help there,

because they just can't.

They don't have any power.

And in that kind of an area, you know,

the Taliban can do whatever they want.

They can leave their mark.

And top of the Taliban agenda is attacking girls' schools.

There's been news of an attack on a school nearby

in an area where the Taliban are active.

There was an attack on the head teacher of a school.

No-one's really sure why,

but there's a suspicion that the Taliban were involved,

because this guy represented a lot of what they don't like.

But it's just those signs, those little signs of them

getting here, getting in.

The area is so dangerous, we need a police escort to the school.

It's less than 24 hours since the shooting happened,

and local people are still gathered around.

Police officers are guarding the crime scene.

-This is the Nation Secondary School.

-Yeah?

The Taliban struck during an awards ceremony at the all-girls school.

The Head Teacher, Abdul Rasheed, was killed on the spot,

and six children were injured.

-This is the blood of childs.

-Oh, God.

Oh, my goodness.

Mr Attaur Rahman, the principal of the Iqbal Academy is also here.

He is injured in this incident at that time.

-You were here when this happened?

-Yes.

'Attaur Rahman, a head teacher at a nearby school,

'was a guest at the ceremony.

'He was sitting next to Mr Rasheed when the gunman opened fire.'

So what did you see? What happened here?

A person came here and he started firing.

First he started to the principal, then me,

then others, and all the children were crying.

So I said to them to go inside the rooms

and meanwhile, a hand grenade, they throw here.

'Six of the girls were injured

by flying shrapnel from the grenade.'

You've obviously been injured in what happened yesterday.

-You've hurt yourself.

-Yes, uh...

One bullet in from here

-and from here, outside.

-Oh, God!

-Oh, my goodness.

-And another one shot here.

That's on your chest!

Here is, passes through my skin.

Why would anybody want to attack small girls, small children?

Because they want to spread fear.

But one thing,

I'm sure that they did not want to educate our children.

What is the future of our kids?

We need support, not only in this country, but international support.

This is what Malala tried to do.

Malala was here. She visited this school.

Did she? She visited here?

Yes, in March 2012, Malala visited this school.

She met with the girls.

They were very happy that Malala was among them.

The school is now shut and its future is uncertain.

Parents are scared to let their children return.

Why would you choose to attack a school on the day that

they're getting the prizes?

On this day, on the day when actually,

they're being recognised for being good at something.

Unless you wanted to teach them a lesson,

unless you wanted to say to them,

"You're not leaving here. You're not going to be educated,

"you're not going to go to college, you're not going to get a job.

"You're not leaving this really poor town, you know?

"You're never going to get anywhere,

"and I'm going to stop you by terrorising you."

And this is exactly what Malala's talking about.

The injured girls were sent a couple of miles away to

the public hospital in Saddar Town,

another poverty-stricken area of Karachi.

God, if I was sick, I hope I don't end up here.

The hospital is filthy,

with blood stains and cockroaches,

a far cry from the military facility

Malala was taken to when she was shot.

But it's the nearest medical centre to the school.

SHE GREETS THEM IN OWN LANGUAGE

Give me your hand, shake my hand.

Tahira has shrapnel wounds in her legs and feet.

She was close to the grenade when it exploded.

-TRANSLATION:

-After the firing started, she lost her consciousness.

All the children got panicky.

When the grenade was thrown, its pellets hit her legs and feet.

Is she going to be OK?

Is she going to be in hospital for a long time?

They will tell us tomorrow, because they have not extracted the pellets.

I mean, the pieces that hit her, from the grenade or the bomb.

Are you going to let her go back to school?

Will you let anyone in your family go to school?

The thing is, education is essential.

If there was no education, we wouldn't be able to think freely.

So, God willing, as soon as she has recovered,

she will go back to school.

Don't you feel scared?

She does feel scared, but what can we do?

We have to educate our children.

Shake my hand?

Yes! Bye-bye. See you.

'Ten-year-old Tahira's shrapnel wounds prove

'that the Taliban are still waging war

'against girls brave enough to go to school,

'nine months after Malala was shot.'

I am here in Pakistan today, months and months later,

and I'm at a hospital where the same thing's happened.

That little tiny girl, so frail and so cute and so innocent,

she was doing something that was so normal and so natural.

She was in her classroom in a school,

and I suppose it really brings it home

that there are people in the world who are dying to get an education.

'And that night, I hear that one of the girls

'injured in the attack has died.

'I can't understand how the Taliban can justify

'taking the life of a young girl because she wants to go to school.'

I've only got a few questions, but they need answering.

'With the help of middle men,

'I manage to get a message to the Taliban asking for an interview,

'but they refuse to speak to me.

'After the shooting of Malala, they did release a statement.'

"Although she was young and a girl,

"and the Taliban does not believe in attacking women,

"whomsoever leads a campaign against Islam and Shariah

"is ordered to be killed by Shariah.

"It is not merely allowed to kill such a person,

"but it is obligatory in Islam."

But Malala wasn't campaigning against Islam,

she was fighting for education.

And I was brought up to believe

that it's the duty of men and women under Islam to seek education.

In fact, most mosques have their own schools, called madrassas.

I'm on my way to the Red Mosque in Islamabad.

It's the closest I'm going to get to any answers.

It's Pakistan's largest Mosque, with a reputation for extremism.

GUNFIRE AND SHOUTS

In 2007, The Red Mosque became a battleground

between its hardline followers and the Pakistani Army,

after its students started attacking local people

they accused of breaking Islamic law.

Female students carried out anti-vice raids in the city.

After nine days of clashes,

Government security forces stormed the mosque

and the madrassa next-door.

The militants fought back with machine guns,

shoulder-fired rockets and petrol bombs.

By the end of the battle, more than 150 people had been killed

and the madrassa was destroyed.

But a new location was found for the madrassa,

and with 5,000 students, it's now the largest in Pakistan.

I've been promised I can speak to

the head of the Mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz.

But first I'm getting a tour of the girls' madrassa.

For me to be here is a big deal,

and for them to even speak to me is a big deal.

It's a rare privilege to be shown around.

Hi!

THEY EXCHANGE GREETINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

Thank you for letting me come to the madrassa.

The students in the madrassa range from the age of five to 20.

The older students have to cover their faces because of our visit.

-This is classes?

-Yes, this is classes of Taqmillah.

This class is full of PHD students studying the Qur'an.

TEACHER READS OUT LESSON OVER TANNOY

What are they talking about right now?

TEACHER CONTINUES OVER TANNOY

So that loud tannoy is the teacher and all these are the students,

but because it's so important for men and women to be separate,

it's furz, which means it's mandatory,

this classroom hasn't got a teacher in it at all.

That's him, and they can't be in the same room.

So they're the oldest, now we're going to see some younger children?

CHILDREN REPEAT TEACHER

Gosh, they are disciplined!

-CHILDREN REPEAT BACK

-I am seven year old.

There's science, maths, and English on the syllabus here,

but the subject that dominates is Islamic studies.

So now we're going to pink class. What subjects are they learning?

Classes are free,

and children come from all over the country to study here.

Hi, salaam aleikum.

'The madrassa is run by Ume Hassan.

'She's the wife of the head of the Mosque

'and a senior figure in the Islamic community.'

The most important thing for you is Islamic studies?

Then everything else?

No, no, Islamic studies is number one

and every...other studies is number two.

-Everything else?

-Everything.

-Sahibe?

-Everything.

TRANSLATION: Our basis is the Qur'an.

If we want to become a perfect Muslim,

we have to learn the Qur'an, and then the whole world is in front of us.

The Taliban have said that girls can be educated,

but that there should be no co-education, no mixed classes.

So the Taliban came here?

We invited them over for talks.

The government asked us to talk to them.

If someone called you an extremist, what would you say?

I would say, "Yes." What's wrong with that?

If you asked a doctor if he's a doctor, would he be ashamed of that?

-Yes, I'm an extremist.

-You're happy to call yourself an extremist?

Yes, and I'm proud of it.

The Taliban may have told the principal

that they are just opposed to co-education not girls' education,

but if that's true,

why did they shoot Malala, who went to an all-girls school?

I want to talk to the principal's husband, Maulana Abdul Aziz,

the head of the Red Mosque.

He doesn't normally grant an audience to a woman,

but he's agreed to speak to me.

Salaam Aleikum.

The Maulana won't look directly at me as, in his view,

this would be un-Islamic.

Maulana Aziz fought in the battle of the Mosque.

He was captured and jailed, and his brother and his son were killed.

-TRANSLATION:

-Islam is the most peaceful religion,

but consider it like this,

if someone attacks Islam, then Islam asks for jihad,

to fight against them.

Obviously, the biggest news at the moment is Malala and her story.

When you heard of it, what did you think about it?

She is a human being,

and we could never support the injustice against her,

and we grieve over what happened to her.

But there was a reason.

She said that liberalism is acceptable,

and there was no need for women to cover themselves.

She talked against Islam. That's why the West like her.

But Malala is Muslim.

Yes, she is, but we are all Muslims.

So what's wrong with what she was saying?

Why did they attack her?

I don't know who attacked Malala.

I don't support them, and it was wrong.

Where is the evidence that she was attacked? Who attacked her?

Look, in America the World Trade Center was attacked.

There should be a proper investigation

into who made these attacks.

'But we know the Taliban shot Malala because they claimed responsibility.

'And she didn't speak out against Islam

'so that wasn't the reason for shooting her.

'Malala just wanted girls to be educated

'and that's why they shot her.'

I'm an educated girl.

I'm a journalist. I travel the world.

In your opinion, I probably maybe step outside of Islamic boundaries.

Is what I'm doing wrong?

As a Muslim, you should wear a burkha, according to Sharia law.

And secondly, you shouldn't be travelling without close relatives.

A woman has boundaries she has to keep within, as does a man.

The Maulana does believe in education for girls,

as long as it's Islamic education,

and he wants to give me a book so I can learn the ways of Islam.

He said to me, "You're educated in the ways of academics,

"but you need to be educated in the ways of your faith."

And I think, for him, THAT,

being educated about this,

is more important than any other form of education

and that's what he does here with 5,000 kids.

For the Maulana, the big picture isn't just about education,

it's world domination.

-TRANSLATION:

-If the Mujahideen have the power to defeat the US

and all the infidels, they can defeat anyone.

And when Islamic rule is established,

they will get strong support

and they will conquer the whole world and nobody will defeat them.

The Maulana and his wife were polite and welcoming,

even though to them, I'm a Westerner.

But what they told me is actually pretty frightening.

It reminds me of what happened in Afghanistan.

I did get a little bit worried and a bit scared.

They want to see the spread of Taliban

and Mujahideen around the whole of Pakistan and the world.

That's worrying, because you don't have to think long and hard

to when the Taliban were last in charge

in my country, where I'm from,

and what they did to it,

and the fact that there was no education system.

While girls here are still fighting for their education,

the schoolgirl who focused the world's attention on Pakistan

is making a good recovery from her injuries.

Because of the prayers of the people,

now I can even walk, I can even run now.

Malala now has a new life in the UK, where she's returned to school.

But she's still campaigning

on behalf of her fellow schoolgirls back in Pakistan.

I dream for all the children that they should go to school

because it's their right. It's their basic right.

And with the money that people have donated since the shooting,

she's launched a fund to help other girls in Pakistan.

In Swat Valley, in my motherland,

we are going to educate 40 girls,

and I invite all of you to support Malala Fund

and let's turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls.

Her brave determination has won her the admiration of people around the

world, and this year she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

What happened that day in October

has changed her friends Kainaat and Shazia's lives completely.

They still live in fear of the Taliban,

but this hasn't deterred them.

They believe in Malala's message and want to make sure it lives on.

You guys have lived through it, thank goodness,

what happened with Malala with the Taliban.

The attack is over. What do you want now?

TRANSLATION: God willing, my future plan

is to become a doctor, study medicine,

and we'll continue our education the same as before.

Our determination is still strong.

It hasn't weakened after what happened.

-TRANSLATION:

-Our fight is not against terrorism,

it is for education.

They say girls shouldn't get an education.

We say girls WILL get an education.

Because it's our right.

If it said in Islam that we shouldn't be educated,

then our parents would not allow us to go to school and be educated.

Everyone should fight for it.

I started on this journey wanting to learn more about Malala

and what she's fighting for, but along the way,

I've met so many other brave girls like her.

Girls who are risking everything to go to school

so they can make something of their lives.

TRANSLATION: Malala was determined

to raise her voice for girls' education,

and now she has gone away, we, Shazia and Kainaat, will do the same.

God willing, we will continue our studies.

Education is our right and we will get it.

-TRANSLATION:

-Yes! Now every parent who sees Malala, says,

"Look, Malala spoke out in tough conditions

"and reached a respected place,"

and they say to their children, "Go to school and be like Malala!"

Despite the international outcry over the shooting of Malala,

the Taliban have continued blowing up schools

and attacking school children.

It would be a bleak and depressing picture

if it weren't for people like Shazia and Kainaat who are prepared to keep

fighting for the future of girls and their education in Pakistan.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd