Malala Yousafzai makes 1st return to Pakistan since Taliban shot her

The education advocate hasn't returned home in more than five years.

March 29, 2018, 6:10 AM

Malala Yousafzai, the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, returned to Pakistan for the first time since 2012 when she was shot by the Taliban for advocating for girls' education.

"I always dreamt of this moment," she told an audience at the office of the prime minister on Wednesday.

Yousafzai, now 20, became emotional during her short speech, pausing to wipe away tears.

PHOTO: The car carrying Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafza and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai leaves for Prime Minister House ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in Islamabad,March 29, 2018.
The car carrying Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafza and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai leaves for Prime Minister House ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in Islamabad,March 29, 2018.

"I don’t cry much," she told the crowd, wiping away a few more tears as her family looked on with pride, themselves getting emotional.

Yousafzai established the Malala Fund to help support the efforts of those seeking to educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, two countries where it's long been neglected.

During her four-day trip returning to her country of birth, Yousafzai plans to meet with government officials and female and education activists.

PHOTO: Pakistani Social Leader Malala Yousafzai is seen during  the 'Meeting with Malala' press conference at the Tecnologico de Monterrey University  as part of her working visit to Mexico in this Aug. 31, 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Pakistani Social Leader Malala Yousafzai was winner Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 is seen during the 'Meeting with Malala' press conference at the Tecnologico de Monterrey University as part of her working visit to Mexico in this Aug. 31, 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico.

She also had hoped to travel to her native Swat Valley, where she spent her childhood, and to her parents' town of Shangla, where schools have been built through her fund, but those plans were canceled due to administrative reasons, a family source said.

Instead, she'll be privately meeting her family, which will travel to Islamabad. Yousafzai's exact schedule is being closely guarded for security reasons and fear of another attack by the Taliban.

Now a student at Oxford, she said, "I have seen a lot in these years."