TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Malala Yousafzai has just been honored as icon of global education by the United Nations. Accordingly, on Friday, July 2013, Malala delivered a speech in front of the the UN's General Assembly, where she called for the availability of global education for all children in the world, without any exception.

For a majority of Pakistanis, Malala, a young girl who was shot in the head by Taliban, is a symbol of courage in fighting for the provision of education for girls. On the other hand, for radical right-wing groups and conspiracy theorists, she is a controversial figure who is accused to be a CIA agent.

Nonetheless, for Pashtun young girls in Karachi, Malala's struggle to go to school in the Swat region amid an ongoing insurgency is a source of inspiration.

After Taliban's attempted assassination of Malala at the end of October, a young teacher who is joined in 'Teach for Pakistan' started to read out Malala's diary to her 13 years-old students at a secondary school in Karachi.

"They had heard other things about her," said Afrah Qureshi, who teaches English to 200 students at the school, in a poor, conservative Pashtun district. "Some said that they had heard she had committed blasphemy, that she had said something about religion. And then I asked them if they had read Malala's diary."

Qureshi did not only read out Malala's diary to his pupils everyday in class, but also encouraged them to write like Malala. After reading her diary, their perceptions changed almost entirely. "They loved reading her thoughts," said Qureshi.

A 14 year-old girl, Sara, penned a diary in elegant, cursive writings about her aspirations and what she has seen in her daily life. "I think Malala is a brave and an intelligent girl," she wrote in her own diary, titled A Tribute to Malala.

"The Taliban should not stop her to go to school because every person has their own life. A killer should not attack on her because it is not right. We all should respect our talented people, as we respect Malala."

Sara told Guardian that she enjoyed reading Malala's diary and she loved learning to write her own diary. "It improves my English," she said.

GUARDIAN|JULI HANTORO