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BIRMINGHAM/ISLAMABAD: When told she had won the Nobel peace prize on Friday, Malala Yousafzai was appropriately enough at school in central England, where she has been living after recovering from a Taliban bullet.Malala, now aged 17, became globally known in 2012 when Taliban gunmen almost killed her for her passionate advocacy of women's right to education. She has since become a symbol of defiance in the fight against militants in northwest Pakistan — a region where women are expected to keep their opinions to themselves and stay at home."The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born," she told the United Nations last year. "I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me. I would not shoot him," she said in a speech that captivated the world.Malala, now based in Britain, is unable to return to her homeland because of threats from the Taliban. The current Taliban chief, Mullah Fazlullah , was the one who ordered the 2012 attack against her.She has enrolled in a school in Birmingham and become a global campaigner for women's right to education and other human rights issues, taking up issues such as the situation in Syria and Nigieria.It's ironic that while Malala is hailed around the world as a champion of women's rights, in her homeland many view her with suspicion as an outcast or even as a Western creation aimed at damaging Pakistan's image abroad. At the time of her Nobel nomination, social media sites were brimming with insulting messages. "We hate Malala Yousafzai, a CIA agent," said one Facebook page.Raised in Pakistan's ruggedly beautiful, politically volatile Swat Valley, Malala was barely 11 years old when she began championing girls' education, speaking out in TV interviews. The Taliban had overrun her hometown of Mingora, terrorizing residents and threatening to blow up girls' schools.She was critically injured on October 9, 2012, when a Taliban gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the head. She survived through luck — the bullet did not enter her brain — and by the quick intervention of British doctors visiting Pakistan.