Malala Yousafzai returns to Pakistan for the first time in 6 years


Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai arrived in Pakistan early Thursday, making her first trip back since leaving six years ago when she was shot in the face and neck by the Taliban for daring to go to school.
She has a heavy security detail with her, CNN reports, and is expected to meet with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi while in Islamabad. Now 20, Yousafzai was only 14 when she was shot while on a school bus, by a fundamentalist threatened by girls getting an education. Yousafzai was flown to Britain for medical treatment, and is known as an advocate for the rights of girls, with her Malala Fund helping young women worldwide get an education.
Yousafzai is from Mingora in the Swat Valley, and her old neighbors hope she comes to visit them while in the country. "When girls like us go to school in Swat the only reason is Malala Yousafzai," 16-year-old Faryal Niaz told CNN.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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