Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai ‘overwhelmed and happy’ to be back in Pakistan
The Hindu
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai returns to Pakistan for girls' education summit, advocating for rights and accountability against Taliban.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Saturday (January 11, 2025) she was “overwhelmed” to be back in her native Pakistan, as she arrived for a global summit on girls’ education in the Islamic world.
The education activist was shot by the Pakistani Taliban 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 (January 11, 2025) morning by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and brings together representatives from Muslim-majority countries, where tens of millions of girls are out of school.
Ms. Yousafzai is due to address the summit on Sunday (January 12, 2025).
“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.
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