World

Taliban Influence Waning in Swat Region of Pakistan

As girl shot in the head by the Taliban addresses the UN

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When the Pakistani Taliban shotMalala Yousafzai in the head, their message to the world was simple: girls have no right to an education and their dreams of a better future should be crushed.

The attack portrayed the world's only Muslim nuclear power in an appalling light as Western leaders and celebrities fell over themselves to turnMalala into a global icon of child rights. 

But while she gears up to address the UN General Assembly on Friday - her 16th birthday and nine months since the shooting - more girls than ever in her home, Pakistan's northwestern Swat valley, are in school.