Who should have protected Malala?

There has been intense public reaction in Pakistan to the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year-old schoolgirl, by Taliban gunmen.

"I was shocked and I feel ashamed ... because we could not protect her and she was fighting a fight that should have been fought by us. We should have been on the frontline, not her... They [Malala's family] were offered this protection but they refused to take it so you cannot really put all the blame on the government ... it is a mindset that we are fighting, it is the mindset that has to be changed." - Rubina Khalid, a senator with the ruling Pakistan People's Party

She was shot in the neck and head by the Taliban on her way home from school in the Swat Valley in the country's northwest.

Yousafzai, who was seriously injured in the attack, is unconscious while she recovers from an operation. Two other girls were also injured in the attack.

Private schools closed for the day in protest and students gathered to pray for her.

Yousafzai had come to public attention at the age of 11, when she publically criticised the Pakistani Taliban for its violent action against girls' schools in the area which was then under its control, and became the first recipient of Pakistan's National Peace Award for Youth.

The government has condemned the attack, with Asif Ali Zadari, the Pakistani president suggesting that Yousafzai should get medical treatment in Dubai. But the teenager does not have a passport and is too unstable to be moved.

There have been many instances of clashes between tribal law, custom and a democratic constitution in Pakistan.

But in claiming responsibility for this shooting the Pakistani Taliban made clear the motive was rooted in a particular interpretation of Islamic law.