© 2024 SDPB Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

VIDEO: 'Today You Can See That I'm Alive,' Says Malala, Girl Shot By Taliban

Saying that "today you can see that I'm alive" and that she has been given a "second life," the Pakistani girl who was shot and seriously wounded in October by the Taliban for speaking out about its efforts to bar girls from going to school has released a video to thank all those who have prayed for her.

Malala Yousafzai also uses the video to talk about the Malala Fund, which hopes to use "grants and partner collaborations with civil society organizations" to help educate girls and young women in Pakistan.

"I want to serve," the teenager says, and will do what she can to help "every girl, every child to be educated."

According to the BBC, "Malala, 15, was speaking in an interview recorded before surgery at a Birmingham hospital on Saturday." The Associated Press adds that:

"Malala was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan in October to receive specialized medical care and protection against further Taliban threats. She is expected to remain in the U.K. for some time as her father, Ziauddin, has received a diplomatic post based in the English city of Birmingham.

"The video statement was published Monday, hours after Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said it had successfully operated to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.