Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, met the Queen today and spoke to her about about the importance of education.
The 16-year-old schoolgirl was shot in Pakistan last October after campaigning for the right of girls to go to school in a part of the country where Islamic fundamentalists were trying to impose a strict form of sharia law.
Prince Philip on his usual form reduced her to giggles when he commented that in this country people wanted children to go to school to get them out of the house. Malala covered her face while she laughed.
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The teenager, accompanied by her father Ziauddin, gave the Queen a copy of her book, I Am Malala, during their meeting in the palace's White Drawing Room, telling her: "It is a great honour for me to be here, and I wanted to present you with this book."
The Queen replied: "That's very kind of you."
