Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot at by the Taliban in October, was discharged from hospital in Birmingham, England just hours before I discussed Pakistan’s desperate need for a “Malala effect” with a journalist from Peshawar. And this extends from education to a healthier view of sex Syed Irfan Ashraf writes for Dawn newspaper and teaches at Peshawar University, told me in reference to the Indian protests against rape: “We had the courage to take up the Malala case but may not be able to protest on the streets about rape.”

Mr Ashraf, who is pursuing a doctorate in mass communications at the South Illinois University at Carbondale in the US, meant that Pakistanis, more than Indians, have a deep sense of shame when it comes to discussing sex and everything to do with it. It’s probably true that a South Asia index of sex and shame would put Pakistan at the very top – ie most furtive and ashamed that anyone is doing ‘it’.