Malala discharged from hospital

There is good news from England, this time around. Malala Yousafzai has been temporarily discharged from a British hospital where she was undergoing medical treatment after she was shot in the head three months ago by the Taliban for advocating the education of girls.

According to reports appeared in the media, the Pakistani schoolgirl had made “excellent progress” and would be staying with her family nearby before returning for further surgery to rebuild her skull in about four weeks.

Yousafzai was seen walking slowly out of a ward, wearing a head scarf and accompanied by a nurse in a video released by Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Reports quoted Dr. Dave Rosser, the medical director of the hospital as saying: “Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers.”

It may be noted that the Pakistani Taliban killed six female aid workers this week in the same region in northwestern Pakistan where Ms. Yousafzai was shot.

The teenage activist was travelling in her school bus on October 9 last year when gunmen halted the bus at Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley, singled her out and opened fire. A bullet grazed her brain, nearly killing her, and traveled through her head before lodging in her neck, it was reported.

After emergency treatment in Pakistan, Malala was airlifted to Birmingham hospital, which specializes in treating British soldiers wounded in action in Afghanistan. The New York Times quoted medical experts as saying that Ms. Yousafzai has a good chance of making a full recovery because of her youth, but the long-term impact of her head injuries remains unclear.

Ms. Yousafzai rose to prominence in 2009 with a blog for the BBC’s Urdu-language service that described life in Swat under Taliban rule. Later, she was featured in a documentary by The New York Times.