At just 15, Malala Yousafzai could earn a Nobel Prize

Flown to Britain for surgery after the bullets grazed her brain, the inspiring teenager is now starting to recover - and began by thanking her supporters.

Her message came as thousands of people have called for her to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her demand for women's education in Pakistan.

Speaking on behalf of Malala exactly a month after she was targeted on a school bus, her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, said she wanted to thank well-wishers for helping her to "survive and stay strong".

Malala was flown to Britain for specialist treatment at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital after escaping death when a bullet "grazed" her brain on October 9.

She was in her school van on the outskirts of Mingora in the Taliban-held Swat Valley when men with guns stopped the vehicle.

They demanded that other girls identify Malala who, in early 2009, had written an anonymous blog about life under the Taliban, which had banned all girls in her area from attending school.

The gun-wielding terrorists shot two girls, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and fired at Malala, striking her in the head and neck, according to officials.

The shooting sparked international outrage and the Taliban issued a statement online saying that, if Malala were to survive, they would attack her again.