Malala returns to home town in Pakistan for first time since shooting

Nobel winner Malala visits hometown in Pakistan for first time since shooting

Malala Yousafzai, the girls' rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, returned to her home country of Pakistan on Thursday for the first time since she was shot in the head by Taliban militants in 2012.

Details of the 20-year-old's visit were kept secret, but hours after Yousafzai's arrival in Islamabad she met with Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, his office said.

"Today is the happiest day of my life, because I have returned to my country, I have stepped foot on my nation's soil again and am among my own people," Yousafzai said in a teary speech given during a ceremony to mark the occasion.

It wasn’t immediately clear how long Yousafzai would be Pakistan or whether she planned to travel to her hometown of Swat where the shooting occurred. She has not made the trip to Pakistan in six years, partly due to ongoing security concerns.

Yousafzai was just 14 years-old when Taliban gunmen boarded a small school bus in which she was making her way home after an exam and demanded to know "who is Malala?" before opening fire. The bullet grazed her brain and lodged in her neck.

Yousafzai, already known for her activism at the time of her attack, was airlifted to Birmingham in Britain. She remained in the country after undergoing medical treatment there and started studying at the University of Oxford last year.

Why was she attacked?
At the age of 11, Ms Yousafzai began writing an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about her life under Taliban rule. A documentary film was made about her in 2009.
She soon became a vocal advocate of female education amid militant suppression in Pakistan, and was deliberately attacked on a school bus in October 2012 by Islamist militants. Malala's story brought international attention.

The Pakistani Taliban said at the time that they had shot her because she was "pro-West" and "promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas".

The teenager sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack, and had to have part of her skull removed to relieve swelling on her brain.

After receiving emergency treatment at a military hospital in Pakistan, she was transported to the UK for further treatment and to recover in Birmingham, where her family continue to live.

What has she done since?
Since her recovery, Ms Yousafzai has continued to speak up for children's education and rights around the world.

She set up the Malala Fund with her father Ziauddin, with the goal of "working for a world where every girl can learn and lead without fear".

https://twitter.com/Malala/status/917414203186667520/photo/1
In 2014 she became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi were jointly awarded it for their efforts for children's rights.

She has continued campaigning while pursuing her studies, and is now reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.