PAKISTAN'S Tailban say they are "delighted" Malala Yousafzai, the teenage education activist they tried to kill, missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) shot Malala in the head on her school bus on October 9 last year for speaking out against them.

After the attack she was flown to Britain for specialist care and made a remarkable recovery, going on to become a global ambassador for children's rights.

Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told AFP on Friday the 16-year-old had done nothing to deserve the Nobel, which went to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for its work to rid the world of chemical arms.

media_camera Malala Yousafzai arrives to speak at an International Day of the Girl event at World Bank Headquarters in Washington. Piture: AFP

"We are delighted that she didn't get it. She did nothing big so it's good that she didn't get it," Mr Shahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"This award should be given to the real Muslims who are struggling for Islam. Malala is against Islam, she is secular."



Malala won the European Parliament's Sakharov rights prize on Thursday, which the TTP condemned in similar terms, claiming "her struggle against Islam" was the reason the West was honouring her.

Feted by world leaders and celebrities for her courage, Malala has addressed the UN, this week published an autobiography, and would have been the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate if she had won.

Malala herself told Pakistani radio this week that she felt she had not yet done enough to earn the Nobel and spoke of her desire to do more practical work to promote education.

US President Barack Obama has met with the teen on Friday.

media_camera Malala Yousafzai met with US President Barack Obama on Friday. Picture: AFP

The teen said in a statement after the meeting that she was honoured to meet with the president, who is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

"I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees. I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact," she said.

She called for greater cooperation between the governments of the United States and Pakistan.

The White House said in a statement that Malala met with the president and first lady in the Oval Office where the president signed a proclamation to mark Friday as the International Day of the Girl.

The proclamation says in part that "on every continent, there are girls who will go on to change the world in ways we can only imagine, if only we allow them the freedom to dream."

On Friday she spoke at a World Bank event and was scheduled to speak at a book event at the Sidwell Friends School, which Obama's daughters attend.

Malala first rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling the difficulties of life under the rule of the Taliban, who controlled the Swat valley from 2007 until they were kicked out by the army in 2009.

Though the military operation ended the Taliban's rule, pockets of militancy remain and it was in Swat's main town Mingora that Malala was attacked.

Originally published as Taliban 'delighted' teen denied Nobel