Family jokes and school struggles, film shows private side of Malala

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai (C) poses with girls for a picture at a school for Syrian refugee girls, built by the NGO Kayany Foundation, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley July 12, 2015. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Most people know Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for demanding girls' right to education, but few have heard of the 19th century Afghan heroine she was named after.

According to Pashtun tradition, Malalai of Maiwand spurred her countrymen to victory against British troops in 1880, taking to the battlefield to rally a demoralized Afghan force with a verse about martyrdom. She was later struck down and killed.