Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai today revealed her struggle to adjust to British culture, admitting she was ‘embarrassed and worried’ about starting at a UK school after leaving Pakistan.
The 16-year-old was shot by a gunman who boarded her school bus a year ago in Swat valley after angering the Taliban with her public, outspoken and courageous pleas for girls to be educated.
Malala, who attends Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham, said she is having to get used to seeing women go outside without a man - and was never taught drama or PE in her home country.
Her comments come as a Taliban spokesman warned today that it plans to attempt to kill her again
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I was feeling a little bit embarrassed and worried because I didn't know how to adjust myself in the new system.
‘Drama, music, art and PE is taught - we don't learn it in Pakistan. Here, they don't punish students with a stick... It was difficult to adjust to this new culture and society, especially for my mother.
We have never seen that women would be that much free, that they would go to any market. They will be going alone with no men and with no brothers and fathers.
‘In our country, if you want to go outside, you must go with a man - if even your five-year-old brother goes with you it's fine, but you must have someone else. A girl cannot go outside all alone
Malala also admitted: ‘It's important for me to complete my own education and empower myself with knowledge as knowledge is the real power. I need to complete my homework on time.
I’m still following my own culture - I think this Western society accepts other cultures, so it's a good thing. I am a campaigner for education, children's rights activist and women's activist.’
The girl, who survived the shooting after the bullet went into her left eye socket but missed her brain, also told the BBC's Panorama that UK teenagers do not realise how 'precious' a proper education is.
When asked whether British girls take their education for granted, she said: 'Yes, I believe that, I want to tell the students of UK to think that it is very precious, it's very prestigious, go to school.
'Reading a book, having a pen in our hands, studying, sitting in a classroom is something very special for us because once we were deprived from it and because what we have seen in Swat.'
Her comments come as she received a Pride of Britain Award from David Beckham after being nominated by thousands of members of the public for standing up to terrorists
Malala told the Panorama special, Malala: Shot For Going To School, that being born into a society that did not value girls made early life tough for her.
She said: 'When I was born, some of our relatives came to our house and told my mother, don't worry, next time you will have a son.'
'For my brothers it was easy to think about the future, they can be anything they want. But for me it was hard and for that reason, I wanted to become educated and I wanted to empower myself with knowledge.'
She also called for talks with the Taliban in order to achieve peace. Malala told the BBC: 'The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.
'That's not an issue for me, that's the job of the Government... and that's also the job of America.' She added that terrorists are 'misusing' the name of Islam.
In January 2008 the Taliban, who controlled the region where Malala lived, declared that girls would no longer be allowed to go to school.
Girls who continued to attend class were subjected to acid attacks and abuse and some were even killed as a punishment.
Malala told the programme that continuing to attend school made her 'afraid of my future'.
The schoolgirl has described how she told her friend not to worry before she was shot because the Taliban 'have never come for a small girl'.
Her autobiography, I Am Malala, describes how the gunman fired three shots at her.
In excerpts from her autobiography, published in Parade magazine, she wrote: 'Some of the girls screamed. [Best friend] Moniba tells me I squeezed her hand.
'My friends say he fired three shots. The first went through my left eye socket and out under my left shoulder.
'I slumped forward onto Moniba, blood coming from my left ear, so the other two bullets hit the girls next to me... My friends later told me the gunman's hand was shaking as he fired.'
She travelled to Britain for treatment but her injuries were so bad that her father Ziauddin asked relatives to start arranging her funeral.
Despite being an anti-Taliban activist, he never believed they would target a child.
He said: 'They flogged adult girls but they never killed children. We really didn't expect because we thought that they might have some values, terrorists might have some code of conduct.'
Malala slowly pulled through after being transferred to an army cardiology hospital with better intensive care.
She now lives in Birmingham with her family and started at Edgbaston High School for Girls back in March. She is determined to keep in touch with her Pashtun culture, believing that it teaches patience, peace and religious tolerance.
As well as the Panorama special, Malala will also be seen collecting the Teenager of Courage Award as part of the Pride of Britain Awards on ITV tonight.
After she was presented with the award by former England captain Beckham, she said: 'It is such an honour to receive this award. It will help me continue my campaign.'
Her courage has won her many admirers around the world and she even delivered a speech to the UN on her 16th birthday.She has been invited to a reception for Youth, Education and the Commonwealth, being hosted by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace later this month. It is thought the Queen was impressed by her bravery.
Her courage has even seen her tipped for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Malala told Panorama: 'If I win Nobel Peace Prize, it would be a great opportunity for me, but if I don't get it, it's not important because my goal is not to get Nobel Peace Prize, my goal is to get peace and my goal is to see education of every child.'
Telling the BBC that she would like to go into politics when she is older, she said: 'I will be a politician in my future. I want to change the future of my country and I want to make education compulsory," she said.
'I hope that a day will come [when] the people of Pakistan will be free, they will have their rights, there will be peace and every girl and every boy will be going to school.
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