Malala Yousafzai ‘overwhelmed and happy’ to be back in Pakistan

Islamabad: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said Saturday she was “overwhelmed” to be back in Pakistan, as she arrived for a global summit on girls’ education in the Islamic world.

Malala was shot by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2012 when she was a schoolgirl and has returned to the country only a handful of times since.

“I’m truly honoured, overwhelmed and happy to be back in Pakistan,” she told AFP as she arrived at the conference in the capital Islamabad.

The two-day summit was set to be opened Saturday morning by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and brings together representatives from Muslim-majority countries, where tens of millions of girls are out of school.

Malala is due to address the summit on Sunday.

Also read: Malala Yousafzai to attend education summit in Islamabad

“I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls,” she posted on social media platform X on Friday.

The country’s education minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP the Taliban government in Afghanistan had been invited to attend, but Islamabad has not received a response.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from going to school and university.

Pakistan is facing its own severe education crisis with more than 26 million children out of school, mostly as a result of poverty, according to official government figures, one of the highest figures in the world.

Malala became a household name after she was attacked by TTP militants on a school bus in the remote Swat valley in 2012.

She was evacuated to the United Kingdom and went on to become a global advocate for girls’ education and, at the age of 17, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Over 150 global dignitaries, including ministers, ambassadors, scholars and academia from around 44 Muslim and friendly countries will attend the summit happening on Saturday.

Representatives from UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank will also attend the moot.

The conference will conclude by a formal signing ceremony of the Islamabad Declaration, outlining the shared commitment of Muslim community to empower girls through education, paving the way for inclusive and sustainable education.