Bittersweet survival
Rights | Young activist survives gun attack but members of the Taliban vow they won't let her live
By Tiffany Owens
Malala Yousufzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani school girl shot by a Taliban gunman, appears likely to survive the attack. Doctors removed a bullet from her head this morning during a three-hour operation.
Yousufzai is well-known in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan, where she advocates for girls' right to go to school. On Tuesday, a gunman walked up to a bus carrying children home from school, asked for her by name, then shot her in the head and neck, wounding another girl at the same time.
A helicopter lifted Yousufzai to a nearby military hospital where doctors stabilized her. Doctors said they were forced to begin operating in the middle of the night after Yousufzai developed swelling in the left portion of her brain. They removed a bullet from her body near her spinal cord. Yousufzai remains unconscious and the other girls injured during the attack are in critical condition.
Yousafzai's survival is bittersweet. Her friends and family are thankful that she's alive but must now determine how to keep her safe. On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Islamist militant group, Ehsanullah Ehsan, told BBC Urdu on Tuesday she would not be spared if she survived.
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