Malala portrait unveiled at her Oxford college

Former Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai has been honoured with a portrait at her former University of Oxford college.

Lady Margaret Hall, where Malala graduated with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 2020, unveiled the artwork at a dinner on Friday.

It comes 12 years after she became the youngest ever Nobel laureate for her work promoting girls' rights to access education - which in turn followed her shooting by members of the Taliban in Pakistan aged 15 whilst on her way home from school.

Attending Friday's event, Malala said she hoped the portrait would "help open doors for many other" girls to follow in her footsteps.

"More than anything, I hope it serves as a reminder that a girl from Swat Valley belongs here - and that the next girl from a village in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or anywhere else - belongs here too," she said.

The portrait was painted by artist Isabella Watling, and was commissioned by Lady Margaret Hall in collaboration with the Oxford Pakistan Programme - which provides scholarships scholarships for Pakistani students studying in Oxford.

Malala is a member of the programme's advisory board, having spent three years studying in the city.

In her memoir released last year, Malala revealed details about her time in Oxford, including that it was in a shed at Lady Margaret Hall that she smoked a bong for the first time.

The experience led to her suffering flashbacks, as well as panic attacks and anxiety.

She had been just 15 when she was targeted in Pakistan for speaking up for the rights of girls to be educated.

A militant boarded her school bus in north-western Swat valley and opened fire, wounding her, almost fatally, and two friends.

Following the attack, she and her family moved to Birmingham - before Malala relocated to Oxford for university.

She has since gone on to continue leading the Malala Fund, which campaigns globally to ensure that every girl has access to at least 12 years of free, safe and quality education.

Reflecting on painting the portrait of the iconic activist, its artist Watling said it had been "an honour".

"I wanted to try and capture some of her strength and grace," she explained.

She added that the work had been "unusually challenging to finish", because of the "pressure of painting such a well-known face".

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