“My parents told me to keep coming to school even if I am killed,” Shamsia, 17, said in a moment after class. Shamsia’s mother, like nearly all of the adult women in the area, is unable to read or write. “The people who did this to me don’t want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things.”…

“I told them, ‘If you don’t send your daughters to school, then the enemy wins,”‘ Qadari said. “I told them not to give into darkness. Education is the way to improve our society.”

The adults of Mirwais did not need much persuading. Neither the bus nor the police nor the bridge has materialized, but the girls started showing up anyway. Only a couple dozen girls regularly miss school now. Three of them were girls who were hurt in the attack.