REPORT    AIR DATE: Oct. 10, 2012

While Teenage Activist Remains in Intensive Care, Pakistan Expresses Its Anger

SUMMARY

Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai first gained international attention for her blog advocating for girls' education. This week a gunmen allegedly associated with the Taliban shot Yousafzai in the head and neck, and the group vowed to try to kill her again. Judy Woodruff reports on the global condemnation.

While Teenage Activist Remains in Intensive Care, Pakistan Expresses Its Anger
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JUDY WOODRUFF: In Pakistan, a 14-year-old activist remains in intensive care after being shot twice in the head and neck. Today, the nation moved to express its anger after the Taliban claimed responsibility.

Many Pakistanis came together in protest today over the shooting of a young teenage girl, Malala Yousufzai, by a Taliban gunman.

FARZANA BAR, Pakistan: They don't want a woman, a girl like Malala who knows what her rights are, who knows, you know, how to demand that, and who knows that she wants to live with dignity and with respect.

And I think today we are all gathered here to show our solidarity with Malala. We want to tell -- send a signal to also Taliban that, no matter what happens, we will not let this country to go down like that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fourteen-year-old Yousufzai had gained attention inside her country and beyond, writing and speaking out for girls education and against Taliban atrocities. She was nominated last year for the International Children's Peace Prize.

She was targeted yesterday while in a bus on her way home from school in the northeastern city of Mingora in Pakistan's SwatValley. At a military hospital in Peshawar, doctors removed a bullet from her neck.

The attack drew worldwide condemnation. Speaking at the State Department on the first ever International Day of the Girl, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Yousufzai is a brave young woman.

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Yesterday's attack reminds us of the challenges that girls face, whether it is poverty or marginalization or even violence just for speaking out for their basic rights.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Taliban called the teenager's work an obscenity and pledged to make a new attempt to kill her, if she survives.

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