A. A. SUVOROV Doctor of Philology Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: Pakistan, Swat, Taliban, Pashtuns, war on terror, women's education, UN On July 12, 2013, an unusual guest addressed the audience at the UN headquarters in New York. On the podium, which has seen so many prominent politicians and public figures in its lifetime, stood a girl who celebrated her sixteenth birthday on this day - Malala Yousafzai. Wrapped from head to toe in a pink shawl, from which her thin face peeked out like a cocoon, she addressed the audience, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, touching them as "brothers and sisters". Malala said that a quarter of the world's girls and women still do not have access to primary education, and that in her native Pakistan, a girl's desire to learn can cost her her life, and ended with words that are now repeated by the entire world press.: "One child, one teacher, one book and one pencil can change the whole world" 1. "THE AFGHAN JOAN OF ARC" Malala's story is a testament to the new benefits and dangers that the information technology age promises to the average person. If it hadn't been for television and the Internet, Malala wouldn't have come within a hair's breadth of death, but she would never have known today's triumph. Malala was born into a Sunni Muslim family belonging to the largest Pashtun tribe, the Yousafzai. She was named after the folk heroine and poet Malalai, who participated in the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1881) and inspired the Pashtuns to defeat the British at the Battle of Maiwand (1880). Named after the warrior maiden, "the Afghan Joan of Arc", Malala was born in the city of Mingora, which is located in the Swat Valley, a district of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan. Swat, which was a princely state in Pakistan until 1969, is surrounded by high mountains, a carp ... Читать далее