ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai returned Thursday to her homeland of Pakistan for the first time since being shot more than five years ago and pledged to continue her campaign to promote education for girls.
Ms. Yousafzai and members of her family were shuttled under tight security to be welcomed at Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s residence. In a tearful speech she spoke about how she always thought of home and will continue to fight to promote women’s empowerment, health, education, democracy and peace.
“I am just 20-year-old and I have seen in my life so much,” she said.
Indeed, before she was even a teenager, Ms. Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym that documented the rule of the Pakistani Taliban, which took over the Swat Valley where she lived in 2007. Over the close to three years that they ruled the region, the Taliban closed schools as part of an edict ban girls’ education. On Oct. 9, 2012, when Swat was back under the control of the Pakistani authorities, on her way home from school, two gunmen stopped Ms. Yousafzai’s school van and shot her in the head. She was 15 at the time. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the shooting.
She was flown to the U.K. for treatment and the attack triggered widespread public revulsion against the Taliban in Pakistan.
Since the attack Ms. Yousafzai has pursued her studies in the U.K. and continued to speak out against extremism. She has set up a charity, co-authored a book, spoken at the United Nations—which declared her birthday “Malala Day,” and been on the cover of Time magazine. She has been awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award and become the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize.
Prime Minister Abbasi celebrated her success and bravery Thursday.
“I am very pleased to host a reception in the honor of our daughter who made her name in the world and returned home today,” he said. “We are able to maintain peace after thousands’ sacrifices and we will continue to fight against terrorism. And we want that Pakistan’s globally known extraordinary citizen like you should also give this message to the world.”
The administration of Donald Trump has been increasing pressure on Pakistan to do more to shut down militants that Washington says operate within its borders. Pakistan says it is doing all it can and is a victim of these groups, not a sponsor.
In an attack on March 14, nine people, including five policemen, died after a suicide bomber targeted a security checkpost to guard a religious congregation in the eastern city of Lahore.
Ms. Yousafzai is visiting Pakistan with her parents, two brothers and officials of the Malala Foundation, the welfare organization which she runs from the U.K. During her visit, she will also meet with women leaders and may call on the country’s Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa. Ms. Yousafazai said she also wants to meet the doctors who performed her initial surgery after she was shot in 2012.
She is scheduled to leave the country on Sunday.
Despite her fame, the Taliban’s worldview of her being an agent of the West has become part of the national conversation in Pakistan. In the Pakistani media, Ms. Yousafzai has even been portrayed as a CIA agent and part of a conspiracy to defame Islam.
On Thursday she was criticized by some conservative groups.
“Malala does not represent Pakistan and its girls,” said Kashif Mirza, author of a rebuttal to Ms. Yousafzai’s book titled “I am not Malala, I am a Muslim, I am a Pakistani.“ ”She is seeking her own fame. She has written against Islam in her book.”
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