OSLO - Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai burst into tears Thursday at the sight of the bloodied school uniform she was wearing the day the Taliban shot her.
The uniform is on display in an exhibition dedicated to the 17-year-old education campaigner and her fellow 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, India's Kailash Satyarthi, which the activists jointly inaugurated in Oslo. While touring the exhibition Malala came across the clothes she was wearing when the Taliban shot her in the head in Swat Valley in October 2012 for insisting girls had a right to an education. The normally composed teen, who nearly died of her injuries but went on to make a stunning recovery after surgery in England, broke down at the sight of her bloodstained scarf, jacket and trousers, which were displayed in a glass case.
Satyarthi, 60, attempted to comfort the girl he said he considered like a "daughter" with a hug and a kiss on the head.
"You are so brave, you are so brave," he was quoted by the Norwegian news agency NTB as saying. On Wednesday, Malala became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Satyarthi shared the prize for his 35-year battle to free thousands of Indian children from virtual slave labour. This is the first time Malala's uniform is being shown in public.
TALIBAN SLAM MALALA OVER NOBEL PRIZE: The Pakistani Taliban hit out at Malala Yousafzai over her Nobel peace prize on Friday, slamming her as a "soldier against Islamic society".
Muhammad Umar Khorasani, spokesman for the main faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by Mullah Fazlullah, told AFP that Malala had won the Nobel prize for "promoting Western culture, not education".
The militant spokesman singled him out for criticism. "Malala's father Ziauddin has made an agreement with the Western powers to destroy Pashtun culture and Pakistan," Khorasani said, referring to the dominate ethnic group in the country's northwest, where Malala is from. "Her father is using Malala as a soldier against Islamic society and teachings of Islam."