Malala Yousafzai, the fearless 15-year-old girl from the Swat region of Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year, has released her first video statement since her assassination attempt. This video was made public just days after surgeons at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Birmingham placed a titanium plate in her skull. Showing no vestiges of what happened to her except for a slight rigidity on the left side of her face, she reaffirmed, in perfect English, her mission to bring education to the girls of the globe.
Malala thanked those worldwide who prayed for her recovery, then encouraged support for the Malala Fund, an education nonprofit set up in 2012 with a $10 million donation from Pakistan that will help push forward Malala’s crusade for girls’ equality. The neurosurgeon who operated on her said she suffered no lasting brain damage after undergoing weeks of treatment at the British hospital and will hopefully be able to return to school soon.
