A female Pakistani teacher and mother of three was shot dead by two motorcyclists near the school where she taught in Peshawar, Pakistan.

UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown has condemned the shooting as a "Malala-style" incident. Malala Yousafzai, 15, is a young advocate for women's education who was shot in the face at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen on Oct. 9 in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

Shahnaz Bibi was a headmistress and a teacher at a primary school. She was on her way to work, traveling with her young son, when the attack took place. Her son, Daniel, 12, was unhurt.

"I want justice," he told ITV’s Penny Marshall. "My mother suffered an injustice, and I want the world to know that."

His father must now care for Daniel and his two sisters alone.

Yousafzai was one of the first to sign a petition asking the Pakistani government to protect women and girls pursuing an education.

"I think the petition that’s now being started and led by Malala herself is demanding that the Pakistani government not only get girls to school but protect teachers and girls when they go to school from extremist sects that are trying to deny girls in the 21^st century the right to education," Brown, the former British prime minister, said.

Several female aid workers and teachers have died in similar attacks in Pakistan.

Slideshow: Schoolgirl attacked by Taliban in Pakistan

/

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against Pakistani militants and promoting education for girls.

Launch slideshow

The memoir of 15-year-old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai will be published this fall, publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson announced Wednesday. The deal is reportedly worth about $3 million.

Titled "I Am Malala," the book will tell the story of the young advocate for women's education who was shot in the face at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen on Oct. 9 in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

The bullet passed through her head, neck and stuck in her shoulder but miraculously spared her life.

Malala was treated in England following the attack, and last month she underwent skull reconstruction surgery.

"I hope the book will reach people around the world, so they realize how difficult it is for some children to get access to education," Malala said in a news release. "I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right."

Having survived the cowardly attack, Malala became a symbol for peaceful protest. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon designated Nov. 10 as Malala Day in her honor. Malala now attends school in Birmingham.

Weidenfeld & Nicholson will publish the book in the United Kingdown and Little, Brown in the rest of the world.

The British newspaper The Guardian reported that the deal is worth 2 million British pounds or about $3 million, but the publisher would not confirm. 

In a fragment from the book released Wednesday, Malala writes:

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday. It was Tuesday, October 9, 2012, not the best of days as it was the middle of school exams, though as a bookish girl I don't mind them as much as my friends do. We'd finished for the day and I was squashed between my friends and teachers on the benches of the open-back truck we use as a school bus. There were no windows, just thick plastic sheeting that flapped at the sides and was too yellowed and dusty to see out of, and a postage stamp of open sky at the back through which I caught a glimpse of a kite wheeling up and down. It was pink, my favorite color.

"This book will be a document to bravery, courage and vision," Arzu Tahsin, deputy publishing director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, said in a statement. "Malala is so young to have experienced so much and I have no doubt that her story will be an inspiration to readers from all generations who believe in the right to education and the freedom to pursue it."

University Hospitals Birmingham via AFP - Getty Images

Malala Yousufzai speaks to critical care consultant Dr. Mav Manji at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, after she underwent surgery.

A Pakistani schoolgirl who underwent reconstructive surgery in Britain after being shot in the head by the Taliban said on Monday she felt much better and was focused on her mission to help others.

A team of doctors carried out a five-hour operation on 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai on Saturday to mend parts of her skull with a titanium plate and help restore hearing on her left side with a cochlear implant.

Speaking 24 hours after waking up from surgery at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, Yousufzai said she was already walking around.

"I can walk a little bit, I can talk and I'm feeling better," she said from her hospital bed in a video clip released by the hospital.

"I think I will just get better very soon, and there will be no problem. The thing is my mission is the same, to help people, and I will do that," she said.

Yousufzai was shot in the head at point-blank range in October by the Taliban for advocating girls' education, and was brought to Britain for treatment.

Doctors at the hospital said they were impressed by her recovery so far and hopeful she would be discharged fairly soon, describing her as focused and enthusiastic.

"She should be feeling sorry for herself 24 hours after an operation like that, not talking about helping other people," said Dave Rosser, the hospital's medical director.

Slideshow: Schoolgirl attacked by Taliban in Pakistan

/

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against Pakistani militants and promoting education for girls.

Launch slideshow

The attack on Yousufzai, as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation, and the schoolgirl has become a symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women education and other rights.

"There's still a lot of support (for Yousufzai) coming in, a lot of communication coming in from around the world," Rosser said.

Related:

Malala, teen champion of girls' rights, nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Al-Qaida, Taliban struggle to justify attack on Pakistani teen

Thousands rally in Pakistan for Malala

'Strong young woman': Taliban shooting victim leaves UK hospital

LONDON – Days after she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, a Pakistani schoolgirl who had been shot in the head by the Taliban underwent a successful surgery at a British hospital to reconstruct her skull and help her to restore her hearing.

A team of doctors carried out a five-hour operation on Saturday on 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in October and brought to Britain for treatment.

The procedures carried out were cranial reconstruction, aimed at mending parts of her skull with a titanium plate, and a cochlear implant designed to restore hearing on her left side, which was damaged in the attack.

Slideshow: Schoolgirl attacked by Taliban in Pakistan

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against Pakistani militants and promoting education for girls.

Launch slideshow

"Both operations were a success and Malala is now recovering in hospital," said a statement on Sunday from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, where she is being treated.

The girl's condition was described as stable and the statement said her medical team were very pleased with the progress she has made. "She is awake and talking to staff and members of her family," it added.

The attack on Yousufzai, who was shot in the head at point blank range as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation. The Taliban had targeted her for her outspoken advocacy of girls’ education. She had written a column about her daily life at school for the BBC.

She has become an international symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women education and other rights, and more than 250,000 people have signed online petitions calling for her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Yousufzai will now continue recuperating at the Queen Elizabeth hospital, which has a specialist unit where doctors have treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the hospital statement said.

Related: 

Malala, teen champion of girls' rights, nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 

Video: Next hurdle for Malala after Taliban attack: Skull surgery

Video: Outpouring of support for Pakistani teen attacked by Taliban

NHS via EPA

Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan leaving Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Britain, on Jan. 4 after she was discharged. She will have to undergo specialist cranial surgery at a later date.

Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani girl who rose to international fame after the Taliban nearly killed her for her efforts to promote girls’ education, has been formally nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

Her name was put forward by three members of the Norwegian parliament from the ruling Labor Party on their website Friday, which was the deadline for nominations.

Malala’s name was put forward because of "her courageous commitment to the right of girls to education. A commitment that seemed so threatening to the extremists that they chose to try and kill her," said parliamentarian Freddy de Ruiter on the Labor party web site.

De Ruiter made the nomination with fellow members of parliament Gorm Kjernli and Magne Rommetveit.

Malala was attacked in October with two other girls while traveling home from school in Pakistan’s Swat valley.  The gunman boarded the van and asked for her by name before firing three shots at her — singling her out for writing a blog that criticized the Taliban for barring girls for getting an education.

A week later, Malala was flown to a hospital in the UK for treatment. She is now facing a final major surgery to place a titanium plate over the hole left in her skull. While in the hospital she has received thousands of messages from well-wishers around the world, and continued to speak out on behalf of her cause, becoming a global icon.

The Norwegian MPs said they believed that Malala was "a worthy winner for many reasons. She has become an important symbol in the fight against destructive forces that want to prevent democracy, equality and human rights."

She was also reportedly nominated by members of parliament in France, Spain and Canada. NBC News has not confirmed that information.

To be sure, it is very early in the Nobel process, which culminates with a winner in October.

The Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation, which has been awarding Nobel awards for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace since 1901, said 231 names were submitted for the Peace Prize last year, including 41 organizations.

Nominations can be made only by a select group of people worldwide, including national lawmakers, university presidents and previous Nobel winners.

The foundation does not disclose the names of nominees until 50 years later. However, those who name the candidates sometimes disclose them, as in Malala’s case.

Among other reported nominees for the 2013 prize are Belarusian human rights activist Ales Belyatski, who is in jail, and Russian Lyudmila Alexeyeva.

The list of prior Nobel Peace Prize recipients is populated with presidents and large organizations — including UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, and the European Union in 2012 — and storied individuals, such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela.

If Malala were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she would be the youngest by far and one of just 15 female recipients.

The average age of the 100 individuals is 62, according to the Nobel foundation. The youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate so far is Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman, who was 32 when he was awarded the honor in 2011.

Related:

Video: Next hurdle for Malala after Taliban attack: Skull surgery

Video: Outpouring of support for Pakistani teen attacked by Taliban

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

Handout / Reuters

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai reads a book as she recuperates at the The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

For Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for her activism, thousands of well-wishers have helped her heal.

“She wants me to tell everyone how grateful she is and is amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her well-being,” her father, Ziauddin Yousufzai, said in a statement released by Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in the U.K. Malala is being treated by team that includes staff from Queen Elizabeth and Birmingham Children’s hospitals.

“We deeply feel the heart-touching good wishes of the people across the world of all cast, color and creed. They have helped my daughter survive and stay strong,” he said.

Malala has received money “for sweets,” CDs, school books, clothing and jewellery, according to the hospital’s statement.

She has also been flooded with thousands letters and messages, including one from a 6-year-old who wrote, “I have heard about you being hurt by baddies. I think you are very brave and I am sad that you are not allowed to go to school and I don’t think it’s fair. I think girls should go to school because otherwise they would be stupid and would not know anything and it’s fun to learn things.”

Wrote another: “You have inspired me to have fun and do well at school because, like you said, not all girls get to go to school. I hope your dreams come true.”

One month ago, on Oct. 9, a Taliban gunman shot Malala in the neck for her outspoken belief that girls should receive an education. That activism started in 2008, when she was about 11 years old. In 2009, she was approached to write a blog for the BBC about her life under Taliban rule. She wrote under a pseudonym.

In one entry, Malala wrote:

“I was afraid of going to school because the Taleban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 students attended the class out of 27.

“On my way home from school I heard a man saying, ‘I will kill you.’ I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief, he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.”

Malala later gave television interviews and went on to win Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.

For a week after being shot, Malala remained in Pakistan. On Oct. 15, stabilized, she was flown to the U.K. for further treatment.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the United Special Envoy for global education, has dubbed Saturday, Nov. 10, “Malala Day” in Britain and he will deliver a petition with 1 million signatures to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, urging him to improve access to education for both girls and boys.

(Messages or donations may be left for Malala here.)  

More world stories from NBC News:

• Iranian jets attack US military drone, Pentagon officials say
• Assad: 'I have to live in Syria and I have to die in Syria'
• Guatemalans huddle in streets after earthquake kills dozens
  Iranian missiles hitting Afghan soil, official says
• China launches once-a-decade changing of the guard
• Ex-oil man and son of bootlegger to be next Anglican leader - reports

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

LONDON -- The father of the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for speaking out for the right to an education described his daughter’s attacker on Friday as “an agent of Satan” but said he felt “angels” were on his side as she recovered from her injuries.

Speaking at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where the family had been reunited with Malala Yousufzai “amid tears of happiness” the evening before, Ziauddin Yousufzai said the Oct. 9 attack marked a turning point for Pakistan.

“Everyone, from all political parties, all creeds, all Pakistan was praying for my daughter,” Ziauddin Yousufzai said.

In expressing gratitude for the worldwide tributes and messages of support that have flooded in for Malala, her father described her as “the daughter of everybody, the sister of everybody.”

He said the family had decided to travel to the United Kingdom because otherwise Malala “would be missing her mother and two younger brothers and would not recover as quickly.”

Specialized treatment
Malala was airlifted to Britain for specialist treatment on Oct. 15. Doctors said the gunman’s bullet had struck the teenager just above her left eye and had grazed the edge of her brain.

Ziauddin Yousufzai paid tribute to all the medical teams involved in caring for his daughter. He said she had always received “the right treatment, at the right place and at the right time.”

Dr. Dave Rosser, Medical Director at University Hospitals Birmingham, said Malala was making very good clinical progress. He told reporters an infection had cleared and her treatment was concentrated on physical and psychological rehabilitation.

“She’s very tired,“ Rosser said. “But she managed a big smile for her mom, dad and brothers.”

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Malala Yousufzai, center, meets with her father Ziauddin Yousufzai and other members of her family at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, on Friday.

'She will rise again'
Ziauddin Yousufzai  explained how Malala had been caught up in his social activism in Pakistan, becoming both his “educational companion and friend.”

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

“We have a saying, ‘As the father, so the daughter’,” he said. “And so, in that environment, she became a children’s rights activists at a very early age.”

Malala began standing up to the Taliban when she was 11, when the Islamabad government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley, where she lives, to the militants.

The attack on Malala and two other girls as they left school was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted her against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.

"They wanted to kill her. But she fell temporarily. She will rise again. She will stand again," Malala's father told reporters.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Syrian military agrees to Eid cease-fire; residents report shelling
• Olympic medals 'stolen' as athletes party at nightclub
• Outrage after video shows Chinese teacher abusing kindergarteners
• 'The new Afghanistan'? West turns its attention to Mali
• BBC ripped for handling of sex abuse scandal tied to former host
• Hate crimes rise, far right strengthens as Greece economy sinks
• Top 10 foreign policy issues facing a new president
• How a viral death rumor pushed Fidel Castro out of retirement

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Nathalie Bardou / AP

Participants of a vigil for Malala Yousufzai hold a poster of the shooting victim on Oct. 11 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET: The family of Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for speaking out for the right to an education, arrived at a hospital in Britain Thursday to be reunited with her, NBC News has learned.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik announced that Yousufzai was able to speak and had talked to her parents by telephone, The Associated Press reported. 

On Oct. 15, Yousufzai was transferred to a hospital in the English city of Birmingham to receive specialized treatment for the injuries she suffered earlier in the month.

Her father, mother and two younger brothers were making the trip to Britain, Pakistani and British sources told NBC News.

Pakistan's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, accompanied them.

In Pakistan's largest city, 'Old Glory' is flammable and profitable

In a statement recorded for Pakistani state television, her father, Ziauddin Yousufzai, said his daughter would return home after her medical treatment, the AP reported.  It was the first time he had spoken publicly since the Oct. 9 shooting in northwest Pakistan.

In the statement, Ziauddin Yousufzai dismissed rumors that his family would seek asylum overseas in light of continuing threats by the Taliban.

"I have seen doomsday and survived, you might say. Malala has been honored by the nation, by the world, by people of all classes of all creeds of all colors. I am grateful for that," Britain's Daily Telegraph quoted Ziauddin Yousufzai as saying in an interview before he left Pakistan. 

Can social media propel 'rock star' politician Imran Khan to power in Pakistan?

A spokeswoman for the University Hospitals Birmingham said Yousufzai was still comfortable and responding well to treatment at the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Tributes and words of support from around the world continue to pour in to a special message board on the hospital’s website.

Yousufzai began standing up to the Taliban when she was 11, when the Islamabad government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley, where she lives, to the militants.

Pakistan's Generation Y battles to shape country's future

The attack on Yousufzai and two other girls as they left school was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted her against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

More world stories from NBC News:

• 'The new Afghanistan'? West turns its attention to Mali
• BBC ripped for handling of sex abuse scandal tied to former host
• Hate crimes rise, far right strengthens as Greece economy sinks
• Top 10 foreign policy issues facing a new president
• How a viral death rumor pushed Fidel Castro out of retirement

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET: Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban, is able to stand with help and communicate, British doctors treating her severe wounds said on Friday, though she still shows signs of infection.

Yousufzai, who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating education for girls, on Monday was flown from Pakistan to receive treatment at a unit at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital that has expertise in dealing with complex trauma cases. The unit has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

The hospital also said that Yousufzai was 15 years old, not 14, as had been widely reported.  

Dr. Dave Rosser, medical director at the hospital, said that the girl was "well enough that she's agreed that she's happy, in fact keen, for us to share more clinical detail."   

Al-Qaida, Taliban struggle to justify attack on Malala

Rosser said the infection was probably related to the track of a bullet which grazed her head when she was attacked. Because of the infection, Rosser said, "she is not out of the woods yet."

Slideshow: Schoolgirl attacked by Taliban in Pakistan

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against Pakistani militants and promoting education for girls.

Launch slideshow

Yousufzai began standing up to the Taliban when she was 11, when the Islamabad government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley, where she lives, to the militants.

Thousands rally in Karachi for Malala, 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by Taliban

The attack on Yousufzai and two other girls as they left school was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the her against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.

The hospital also released more details of the attack on Yousufzai.  She was shot at point blank range and the bullet hit her left brow, but instead of penetrating the skull it traveled underneath the skin along the length of the side of her head and into her neck, landing above her left shoulder-blade. 

While Yousufzai was able to communicate by writing, should could not talk because of a breathing tube in her throat.  She was, however, aware of her surroundings, the hospital said in a statement.

Despite the dramatic development, Rosser emphasized that she was still recovering from a very grave injury.

"But we are hopeful we will make a good recovery," he added in a statement.

NBC News staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Mohammed airs his views at Gitmo hearing
• British government to recruit teens as next generation of spies
• U.S. nonprofit 'names and shames' businesses to put bite into Iran sanctions
• Van full of bodies stolen during drivers' break in Germany
• Revolt of the underclass in Syria
• Fidel Castro statement read at Havana event amid rumors about his health
• Rights group blasts Rwanda winning seat on UN Security Council
• 'Spy of the West': Al-Qaida, Taliban struggle to justify attack on Pakistani teen
• UK computer hacker wins 10 year fight against extradition to US

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook