Gulalai in US, seeking asylum

Gulalai Ismail's campaigns to "empower" Pakistani girls have won her international awards and recognition as one of her country's foremost activists. The 32-year-old said she feared for her life in Pakistan. After four months on the run, she succeeded in eluding a vast hunt and has turned up in the United States, where she is seeking asylum. Ismail said she never sought to become an overseas dissident but sees a closing of the political space in Pakistan. "I never wanted to leave Pakistan," she told AFP in an interview in Washington.