Pak girl Malala to have skull reconstructed

Battling odds

A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls’ education is to return to a specialist hospital in Britain for surgery to reconstruct her skull.

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in October and brought to Britain for treatment, was discharged from the hospital earlier this month to spend time with her family after her initial treatment phase.

Her doctors said on Wednesday she would return to hospital within the next 10 days to undergo surgery known as titanium cranioplasty to repair a missing area of her skull with a specially moulded titanium plate.

The shooting of Yousufzai, in the head at point blank range as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation.

She has become an internationally recognised symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women education and other rights, and more than 250,000 people have signed online petitions calling for her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.

British doctors say the bullet hit her left brow but instead of penetrating her skull, travelled underneath the skin along the side of her head and into her shoulder. The shock wave shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and the soft tissues at the base of her jaw were damaged.