(CNN) -- The father of Malala Yousafzai, the teenager whom the Taliban tried to kill, has been given a job in a Pakistan consulate in Birmingham, England, where she is recovering from gunshot wounds to her head and neck, Pakistani officials said Wednesday.

Ziauddin Yousafzai has been appointed education attache and will function as head of the consulate's education section for three years, the Pakistani government said. His job could be extended two additional years.

At the time of his daughter's shooting, Ziauddin Yousafzai ran a school in Pakistan's conservative Swat Valley that kept its doors open to girls -- in defiance of the Taliban.

The Taliban forbid girls in the classroom and have threatened to kill anyone who defies them.

Malala was shot by gunmen last fall for her crusade about girls going to school. She had blogged fearlessly about girls' education and accused the Taliban of thriving on ignorance.

Her father's employment fulfills a pledge by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who visited Malala in December and assured her father that the government would meet "all expenses of Malala's treatment and all the needs of the family while in UK," a government statement said Wednesday.