But could a 14-year-old really fully appreciate that words, however inspiring, could get her killed?

A CNN reporter asked her last year what she would do if she were president of Pakistan.

She said she'd tell the Taliban that girls must be educated.

The reporter pressed her hard. These guys have guns and bombs. You're just a kid, you do as you're told, they would tell her.

She stammered a little, understandably flustered.

If they didn't want to talk, she said, she would use the holy book they used to justify their brutality.

Nowhere in the Quran, Malala said, does it say that girls should not be allowed to go to school.