It’s been four months since Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was attacked by the Taliban for being an outspoken activist. Speaking publicly this week for the first time since the attack, she vowed to continue fighting for women’s rights in her homeland.
“Today you can see that I’m alive,” she said. “I can speak. I can see you, I can see everyone. And today I can speak and I’m getting better day by day.”
She added that because of the “prayers of her supporters” she had been given a “second life” to continue campaigning for the right of girls to receive unobstructed access to education.
In an attack that drew worldwide outrage, Malala was shot at close range by Taliban militants on a school bus in October 2012. She was targeted by the Taliban because she was a symbol of “westernised thinking” as an outspoken campaigner promoting the rights of girls to receive an education.
She first came to public attention as an 11-year-old when she wrote a BBC blog about the difficulties girls in her country face gaining access to education.
In the video she pledged to continue fighting for her cause.
“I want every girl, every child to be educated. And for that reason, we have organised Malala Fund” she said.
The Malala Fund was established to help fund the education of children. It was created in 2012 by Vital Voices and launched with a $10 million donation from Pakistan.
In a piece for The Daily Beast Angelina Jolie and Tina Brown have pledged the $150,000 raised so far for the Women of the World fund to go to the Malala Fund to reinforce her efforts. The Women of the World fund was founded in honour of Malala, to help fund the education of girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“When she was only 10, this amazing girl accompanied her father to a press club in Peshawar and declared: ‘How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?’ Now people are echoing her all over the world by joining the cause,” the two celebrities wrote.
Since the attack, Malala has remained in the UK where she has undergone several operations, including a cochlear implant to restore hearing in her left ear. Doctors have said she didn’t suffer any long-lasting cognitive damage.