Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan for the first time since she was shot by Taliban gunmen in an assassination attempt more than five years ago.
It is unclear if Yousafzai will visit her home town in the Swat Valley, where she was shot in the head by militants as she sat on a school bus with classmates in 2012.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In a speech after her meeting with Abbasi, the feminist campaigner said she had dreamed of coming back to Pakistan “every day for the last five years”, reports the country’s The Express Tribune.
“It’s the happiest day of my life,” she said. “I still can’t believe it’s happening. I don’t normally cry. I’m still 20 years old but I’ve seen so many things in life.”
Yousafzai was targeted by Taliban gunmen for campaigning for female education in the deeply conservative region.
Following the attack, she was transferred to hospital in the UK, where she made a full recovery.
Yousafzai continued her advocacy for girls’ access to education after starting a new life in Birmingham with her family, and became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
In an interview with US talk show host David Letterman earlier this month, the Oxford University student said that she missed “the rivers and mountains” of the Swat Valley and that all she wanted was for her “feet to touch the ground of home”.
News of her arrival has been received enthusiastically by many Pakistanis, the BBC’s Pakistan correspondent Secunder Kermani reports.
“Some Pakistanis have long been critics of Malala, favouring conspiracy theories claiming she is ‘a Western agent’ or was actually shot by the CIA,” Kermani says. “For many other Pakistanis, though, Malala is a source of great pride, and now she’s finally come home.”
Politicians, journalists and celebrities were among those welcoming her back.
Faryal Niaz, a student at the Khushal Model School in Mingora, where Yousafzai studied before she was shot, said the activist was her idol, CNN reports.
“When girls like us go to school in Swat, the only reason is Malala Yousafzai,” the schoolgirl said.
-
Donald Trump’s week in Asia: can he shift power away from China?Today's Big Question US president’s whirlwind week of diplomacy aims to bolster economic ties and de-escalate trade war with China
-
The Icelandic women’s strike 50 years onIn The Spotlight The nation is ‘still no paradise’ for women, say campaigners
-
Mall World: why are people dreaming about a shopping centre?Under The Radar Thousands of strangers are dreaming about the same thing and no one sure why
-
Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime ministerIn the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
The Taliban wages war on high-speed internetTHE EXPLAINER A new push to cut nationwide access to the digital world is taking Afghanistan back to the isolationist extremes of decades past
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American citiesUnder the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
Kabul braces for a waterless futureTHE EXPLAINER A confluence of manmade and environmental factors makes the Afghan city the first modern capital to risk running out of groundwater
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
