Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl and activist who was shot in the head by a Taliban assassin on her way home from school last fall, has spoken publicly for the first time since the shooting.
"Today you can see that I'm alive," Yousafzai said in a short video released on Monday. "I can speak. I can see you. I can see everyone."
Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban for her advocacy for girls' education rights, was released from a British hospital last month.
"I'm getting better day by day," she said. "It's just because the prayers of people, because all the people—men, women, children, all of them, all of them—have prayed for me. And because of these prayers God has given me this new life. And this is a second life. This is a new life.
"I want to serve," Yousafzai, wearing a traditional headscarf that hid any scars from the bullet, added. "I want to serve the people. And I want every girl, every child, to be educated."
