MALALA DEFIES TALIBAN IRE WITH RETURN HOME TO PAKISTAN
▶ Education activist, now 20, accompanied by the army on her first visit to Swat Valley since 2012 shooting
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has returned to her hometown in Pakistan for the first time since she was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012.
Ms Yousafzai, 20, who is a student at the University of Oxford, was yesterday accompanied by the Pakistani military during her visit to Swat Valley, which was once a militant stronghold.
She flew into the region by army helicopter from the capital Islamabad having arrived in Pakistan on Thursday. Her visit was kept under wraps and many thought she would not return to Swat because of security fears.
While in the region, Ms Yousafzai visited her childhood home with her mother, father and two brothers. She was welcomed by relatives, former classmates and friends who greeted her with flowers and hugs.
“It is still like a dream for me. Am I among you? Is it a dream or reality?” she asked.
The education activist later spoke to pupils at the all-boy Swat Cadet College Guli Bagh, which lies outside the district’s main town Mingora, before returning to Islamabad.
Mingora is where Ms Yousafzai’s family was living and where she was attending school on October 9, 2012, when a gunman boarded her school bus, asked “Who is Malala?” and shot her.
The Taliban said they had shot her because she had been “promoting western culture in Pashtun areas”. She was treated first at an army hospital then flown by the UAE to the British city of Birmingham.
Her recovery and tireless career as an education advocate have turned her into a global symbol for human rights and in 2014, at the age of 17, she became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ms Yousafzai’s unannounced visit has been met with widespread joy and pride.
She broke down in tears as she made a televised speech on Thursday, saying it was her dream to be back, and vowed to return permanently after she has completed her education.
But she has also met pockets of intense criticism. Ms Yousafzai is widely respected internationally but opinion is divided in Pakistan, where some conservatives view her as a western agent trying to shame her country.
“What I want is for people to support my purpose of education and think about the daughters of Pakistan who need an education,” she told Pakistan’s The News, published yesterday.
“Don’t think about me. I don’t want any favour or I don’t want everyone to accept me. All I care about is that they accept education as an issue.”
Swat, a mountainous region that was once a prized tourist destination famed for its pristine scenery, was overrun by the Pakistani Taliban in 2007.
The militants imposed violent rule, but the army drove them out in 2009 in an operation widely regarded as a success in Pakistan’s long battle with extremism. Restrictions on tourists visiting the area were lifted recently.
But security is fragile, as the assault on Ms Yousafzai three years after the military operation showed. In February this year, 11 military personnel were killed in an attack and analysts have warned that militants remain there.
Residents of the area have praised Ms Yousafzai in recent days, crediting her with helping to generate improvements in education, especially for girls, in the deeply conservative region, which is part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Last month, a girls school built with money from the Malala Fund opened in the Shangla district north-east of Mingora.
I don’t want any favour or I don’t want everyone to accept me. All I care about is that they accept education as an issue MALALA YOUSAFZAI Nobel Peace Prize laureate