Last Updated, 4:54 p.m. Speaking on camera for the first time since she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban last year, the young activist Malala Yousafzai began with the words, “Today you can see that I’m alive.” The 15-year-old, who was shot in the head as she left school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley four months ago, promised that she would continue to be an outspoken advocate of the right for “every girl, every child, to be educated.”
In the brief statement, the young advocate attributed her survival to the prayers of her supporters and urged them to contribute to a fund established in her name to further the cause of education for girls. “Because of these prayers, God has given me this new life,” Ms. Yousafzai said. “And this is a second life; this is a new life. And I want to serve, I want to serve the people.”
The English-language statement was recorded just before Ms. Yousafzai underwent surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, over the weekend to repair damage to her skull caused by the bullet fired into her head at point-blank range in October.
On Monday, the hospital released more video of the young patient, speaking to one of her doctors after the five-hour operation to reconstruct her skull and implant a device to restore hearing to her left ear.
“I’m feeling alright and I’m happy that the operations, both the operations, were successful,” she told Dr. Mav Manji, a critical care specialist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Asked about the future, she said, “My mission is the same, to help people, and I will do that.” She also expressed her gratitude to the doctors in Pakistan and Britain who cared for her. “God gave me a new life,” she said, “because of the prayers of people and because of the talent of doctors.”
At a news conference on Monday, Dr. Anwen White, the neurosurgeon who led the reconstructive surgery, and Dr. Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director, explained that the titanium cranioplasty, which involved repairing the missing area of her skull with a specially molded titanium plate, “went very well.” (Video of the news conference was posted online by Britain’s Channel 4 News and the hospital uploaded images of the surgery in progress to YouTube.)
An update posted on the hospital’s Web site explained that, after the skull surgery, “Malala then had a cochlear implant fitted – a small, complex electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is to restore hearing to her left ear after she was left deaf in that ear by the bullet.”
As Fatima Manji of Britain’s Channel 4 News reports, the activist also recorded statements in Urdu and Pashto, languages spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Urdu version, Ms. Manji notes, the girl said, “I would be willing to sacrifice myself again.”
The video statement was produced for the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington “that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders,” which will administer the new “Malala Fund,” in cooperation with the young activist and her family.
