LONDON — Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head three months ago by the Taliban for advocating the education of girls, has been discharged from a British hospital.
Doctors said she 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.
“Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers,” said Dr. Dave Rosser, the medical director.
Video released by Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham showed Malala, 15, walking slowly out of a ward, wearing a head scarf and accompanied by a nurse.
The release was a promising turn for the teenage activist. Her shooting sparked global condemnation of the Pakistani Taliban, whose fighters killed six female aid workers this week in the same region in northwestern Pakistan where Malala was shot.
On Oct. 9, gunmen halted her school bus as it went through 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.
Six days later, after emergency treatment in Pakistan, she was airlifted to the hospital in Birmingham, England, which specializes in treating British soldiers wounded in action in Afghanistan.
Medical experts say Malala has a good chance of making a full recovery because of her youth, but the long-term impact of her head injuries remains unclear.
In recent weeks, she has left the hospital regularly to spend time with her father, Ziauddin; her mother, Toorpekai; and her younger brothers, Khushal and Atul. The Pakistani government is paying for her treatment.
Malala rose to prominence in 2009 with a blog for the BBC’s Urdu-language service that described life in the Swat Valley under Taliban rule. Later, she was featured in a documentary by The New York Times.
Now her father, a school headmaster, has accepted a three-year position as education attache at the Pakistani Consulate in Birmingham, making it unlikely that the family will return to Pakistan anytime soon. In any event, it may be too dangerous.
The Taliban have vowed to attack the teenager again, and last month hundreds of students in Swat protested against plans to name their school after Malala, saying it could endanger their lives. After she heard of the protest, she too asked that her name be removed from the school.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/05/2013