海角大神

The hooded Taliban gunman stepped onto the bus full of schoolgirls in northwest Pakistan and barked a single question. 聽

鈥淲hich one of you is Malala?鈥� he demanded, referring to Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old education activist. 鈥淪peak up, otherwise I will shoot you all.鈥�

Before anyone could answer, he saw her, raised his gun, and fired. Then he ran, leaving the girl and two of her friends for dead on the crowded bus.聽

But she was not dead. Today, almost nine months to the day later 鈥� on her 16th聽birthday 鈥� Malala stood before the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York to deliver her first public speech since the assassination attempt, calling on the global community to rally behind the cause of universal educational access.

鈥淭hey thought that the bullet would silence us, but they failed 鈥� and out of that silence came thousands of voices,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he terrorists thought that they would change my aim and stop my ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear, and hopeless died. Strength, courage, and fervor were born.鈥�

But the confidence radiating from the young activist, who wore a vivid pink shawl once owned by assassinated Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, belies the staggering challenges that still face education activists around the world. 聽

Some 57 million primary school-aged children worldwide were out of school in 2011, according to , half of them in countries embroiled in violent conflict.聽

Meanwhile, between 2009 and 2012, the percentage of international humanitarian aid devoted to education dipped from 2.2 percent to 1.4 percent.

And most prescient to the teenage activist making her case at the UN today, there are also 69 million adolescents not enrolled in secondary school. This cohort's educational crisis has often lingered just beyond the reach of international campaigns and funding.

鈥淪econdary education is a particularly difficult issue because you鈥檙e dealing with infrastructural issues, but you鈥檙e also dealing with great social malaise in many cases,鈥� says Orla Kelly, an expert on gender and education in South Asia at Harvard's Fran莽ois-Xavier Bagnoud聽(FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a great consensus in much of the world that children should go to school, but there鈥檚 a lot less agreement about if they should continue during those later years, especially if they are girls.鈥�

It鈥檚 no coincidence, she says, that the Taliban targeted a 15-year-old well on her way to her ambition of becoming a doctor. That, after all, is the moment when education 鈥� particularly the education of girls 鈥� threatens to tip the balance of a conservative social order.

The Taliban 鈥渁re afraid of women,鈥� Malala said. 鈥淭hey were and are afraid of change and the equality we will bring into our society. They think God is a tiny conservative being.鈥�

Malala first rose to international attention in 2009, when the 12-year-old authored an anonymous blog for the BBC on her experiences growing up in Pakistan鈥檚 troubled tribal belt, where the Taliban has attacked more than 800 schools in the past four years.

鈥淚 had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taleban,鈥� . 鈥淚 have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation鈥�. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taleban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools.鈥�

But it was the news of the fearsome attempt on her life, and her unexpected recovery in a London hospital late last year, that elevated the activist and her cause to international c茅l猫bre. The UN declared Friday, Malala鈥檚 birthday, 鈥淢alala Day.鈥�

But history rarely pivots on a single newsworthy event, Ms. Kelly notes.

鈥淲hen the cameras go away, the problems are still there,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here has to be grassroots organizing on the ground to make change.鈥�

In places like Pakistan鈥檚 tribal belt, she says, many want that change. But many rightly see the prospect of defying Taliban edicts against girls鈥� education as literally a matter of life and death. After all, they say, look what happened to Malala.

For her part, the 16-year-old now attends school in Birmingham, England. The school she attended in Pakistan, which was started by her father, is still open, despite threats of violence. And she says the Taliban鈥檚 retaliation has only strengthened the resolve of young people there to get an education.聽

鈥淲e realize the importance of light when we see darkness. We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced,鈥� Malala said. 鈥淚n the same way [in Pakistan] we realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the gun.鈥�