Malala Yousafzai's Recovery

Last trimester, I wrote about Malala Yousafzai; the fifteen year old Pakistani woman activist that was attacked for going to school. Malala spoke and blogged in favor of education for Pakistani girls and against the Taliban rule. She then became the target of an assassination attempt by Pakistan militants. She amazingly survived the attack but was left with life-threatening head and neck wounds.

                It has been three months since the attack and she has drastically recovered but still far from a full recovery.  She was just discharged from a hospital in Britain where she had been recovering for the past three months. She is scheduled for a cranial reconstructive surgery in the next month that will replace a shattered portion of her skull with titanium or perhaps her own bone if possible.

                The article on CNN described Malala’s shooting and her recovery. It is possible that Malala got her defiance and strong will from her father who runs a school in Pakistan that is open to girls. This school is in direct defiance of the Taliban rule. The scary thing though mentioned in the article was the Taliban statement issued after Malala was shot that said that if Malala lived, they would come after her. It makes me wonder whether Malala will live after her recover and how she would be able to survive. I don’t know if she would be allowed asylum in a different country or if she would be offered protection of some kind. Her father however told reporters that he has every intention of returning to his “native country” after she recovers.

                I think that it is really inspirational that Malala is recovering so well. I don’t know what I would do if I was fifteen and became a target of the Taliban. The wide support of this girl is also admirable and it shows how one person can really make a difference and shine light on a bad situation. It is sad however that someone has to get severely injured to actually make an impact on people’s minds. (344)