ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai broke down in tears during an emotional return to the country on Thursday, six years after she was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for advocating greater access to education for girls.
Yousafzai, traveling with her father and younger brother, met Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi before giving a brief speech on national television.
“For last five years, I have dreamed that I can set foot in my country,” she said, wiping away tears. “It’s the happiest day of my life. I still can’t believe it’s happening.”
She said that if it had been up to her, she would never have left Pakistan. “I don’t normally cry … I’m still 20 years old but I’ve seen so many things in life,” she said. At the age of 17, in 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her education advocacy. She also became a global symbol of the resilience of women in the face of repression.
During the speech in which she often switched between English, Urdu and Pashto languages, she spoke of the importance of education and about the efforts of her charitable foundation to help girls.
“Welcome home,” Prime Minister Abbasi told Yousafzai.
“We are very happy that our daughter has come back. When she went away, she was a child of 12. She has returned as the most prominent citizen of Pakistan.”
Speaking to Reuters, security sources and a relative of Malala said that she was unlikely to travel to her home region of Swat due to security concerns.
Earlier in the day, Yousafzai landed at the Islamabad airport and was taken to an undisclosed location amid tight security measures.
During her first day of the trip, she PM Abbasi and several members of his cabinet including State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb, and Senator Mussadiq Malik. Anusha Rehman and Marvi Memon also attended the meeting.
Last week, on Twitter, Yousafzai, who is studying at Oxford University, expressed a longing for her homeland. She tweeted, “On this day, I cherish fond memories of home, of playing cricket on rooftops and singing the national anthem in school. Happy Pakistan Day!”
In October 2012, masked gunmen had stopped a bus taking Malala and other girls home from school and shot her. Two of her friends were also wounded.
After surviving the attack, Yousafzai was airlifted abroad where she underwent surgery. The attack on Malala was claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan who held that it was in response to a blog she wrote for the BBC Urdu service advocating girls’ education.
Unable to return to Pakistan after her recovery, Yousafzai stayed in Britain, setting up the Malala Fund and supporting education advocacy groups with a focus on Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Syria and Kenya. Earlier this month, a new girls’ school built with her Nobel prize money opened in Shangla, near her home district of Swat.
Published in Daily Times, March 30th 2018.
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