Malala Thrives!

I've considered for some time writing an update on Malala Yousafzai - the young Pakistani girl who was hunted down and shot in the head by a Taliban gunman on her way home from school.  When I blogged about her 2 days after the event in October, she was in a coma and given a 70% chance at survival...

Well the news has been good!  A week after the attack, she was flown to the UK and has been treated at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth's Hospital.  Her course of treatment is well-documented in the above Wikipedia link.  She has recently spoken on camera for her favorite cause - the call for education for all youth of the world, as well as an interview with doctors regarding her recovery.

The most gratifying response is from the people of Pakistan who were shocked and outraged at the girl's shooting, and the Taliban's justification for doing so.  There has been an identification of the shooter, but both he and the cleric who called for her killing are in hiding, the later known to be in eastern Afghanistan.  But while the Taliban claims to continue to target her, the outrage from around the world has brought her cause to the fore and between public demonstrations and the surprising (to the Taliban anyway) regional unified support of the public has loosened the hold that militants have in the area.  In the meantime, Malala continues her rehabilitation in the UK, and her father has been appointed the educational attache of Pakistan to its consulate in Birmingham, UK.  Meanwhile, the illustration at left appeared as a tribute on International Woman's Day today on Slate.com.  The illustration is the conclusion of a graphic short story that can be seen here.