Malala Yousafzai

Yousafzai with her father (left) and Martin Schulz in Strasbourg, 2013.

Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997 in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, into a lower-middle-class family.[25] She is the daughter of Ziauddin Yousafzai and Toor Pekai Yousafzai.[26] Her family is Sunni Muslim[5] of Pashtun ethnicity, belonging to the Yusufzai tribe.[27] The family did not have enough money for a hospital birth and Yousafzai was born at home with the help of neighbours.[28] She was given her first name Malala (meaning "grief-stricken")[29] after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan.[30] At her house in Mingora, she lived with her two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal, her parents, Ziauddin and Tor Pekai, and two chickens.[5]

Fluent in Pashto, Urdu and English, Yousafzai was educated mostly by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a poet, school owner,[31] and an educational activist himself, running a chain of private schools known as the Khushal Public School.[32][33] In an interview, she once said that she aspired to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead.[5] Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, allowing her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.[34]

Inspired by the twice-elected Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Yousafzai started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club.[10] "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" she asked in a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region.[35] In 2009, she began as a trainee and was then a peer educator in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's Open Minds Pakistan youth programme, which worked in the region's schools to help students engage in constructive discussion on social issues through journalism, public debate and dialogue.[36]

From left to right: Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah have influenced Yousafzai

In late 2008, Aamer Ahmed Khan of the BBC Urdu website and his colleagues came up with a novel way of covering the Pakistani Taliban's growing influence in Swat. They decided to ask a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life there. Their correspondent in Peshawar, Abdul Hai Kakar, had been in touch with a local school teacher, Ziauddin Yousafzai, but could not find any students willing to report, as their families considered it too dangerous. Finally, Yousafzai suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala.[37] At the time, Pakistani Taliban militants led by Maulana Fazlullah were taking over the Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls' education,[38] and women from going shopping.[39] Bodies of beheaded policemen were being displayed in town squares.[38] At first, a girl named Aisha from her father's school agreed to write a diary, but her parents stopped her from doing it because they feared Taliban reprisals. The only alternative was Yousafzai, who was four years younger and in seventh grade at the time.[40] "We had been covering the violence and politics in Swat in detail but we didn't know much about how ordinary people lived under the Taliban", said Mirza Waheed, former editor of BBC Urdu. Because they were concerned for Yousafzai's safety, the BBC editors insisted she use a pseudonym.[38] Her blog was published under the byline "Gul Makai" ("cornflower" in Pashto), a name taken from a character in a Pashtun folktale.[41][38][42][43]

On 3 January 2009, her first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog. She hand-wrote notes and passed them to a reporter who scanned and e-mailed them.[38] The blog recorded Yousafzai's thoughts during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations took place, fewer girls show up to school, and finally, her school shut down. That day she wrote:

I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 out of 27 pupils attended the class because the number decreased because of the Pakistani Taliban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict.[29]

In Swat, the Pakistani Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. They had already blown up more than 100 girls' schools.[38] The night before the ban took effect was filled with the noise of artillery fire, waking Yousafzai several times. The following day, she also read for the first time excerpts from her blog that were published in a local newspaper.[29]

Following the edict, the Pakistani Taliban destroyed several more local schools. On 24 January 2009, Yousafzai wrote: "Our annual exams are due after the vacations but this will only be possible if the Pakistani Taliban allow girls to go to school. We were told to prepare certain chapters for the exam but I do not feel like studying."[44]

In February 2009, girls' schools were still closed. In solidarity, private schools for boys had decided not to open until 9 February, and notices appeared saying so.[44] On 7 February, Yousafzai and her brother returned to their hometown of Mingora, where the streets were deserted, and there was an "eerie silence". She wrote in her blog: "We went to the supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed." Their home had been robbed and their television was stolen.[44]

After boys' schools reopened, the Pakistani Taliban lifted restrictions on girls' primary education, where there was co-education. Girls-only schools were still closed. Yousafzai wrote that only 70 pupils attended out of the 700 who were enrolled.[44]

On 15 February, gunshots were heard in Mingora's streets, but Yousafzai's father reassured her, saying, "Don't be scared—this is firing for peace." Her father had read in the newspaper that the government and militants were going to sign a peace deal the next day. Later that night, when the Taliban announced the peace deal on their FM Radio studio, another round of stronger firing started outside.[44] Yousafzai spoke out against the Pakistani Taliban on the national current affairs show Capital Talk on 18 February.[45] Three days later, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi leader Maulana Fazlulla announced on his FM radio station that he was lifting the ban on women's education, and girls would be allowed to attend school until exams were held on 17 March, but that they had to wear burqas.[44]

On 25 February, Yousafzai wrote on her blog that she and her classmates "played a lot in class and enjoyed ourselves like we used to before."[44] Attendance at Yousafzai's class was up to 19 of 27 pupils by 1 March, but the Pakistani Taliban were still active in the area. Shelling continued, and relief goods meant for displaced people were looted.[44] Only two days later, Yousafzai wrote that there was a skirmish between the military and Taliban, and the sounds of mortar shells could be heard: "People are again scared that the peace may not last for long. Some people are saying that the peace agreement is not permanent, it is just a break in fighting."[44]

On 9 March, Yousafzai wrote about a science paper that she performed well on, and added that the Taliban were no longer searching vehicles as they once did. Her blog ended on 12 March 2009.[46]

After the BBC diary ended, Yousafzai and her father were approached by New York Times reporter Adam B. Ellick about filming a documentary.[40] In May, the Pakistani Army moved into the region to regain control during the Second Battle of Swat (also known as Operation Rah-e-Rast). Mingora was evacuated and Yousafzai's family was displaced and separated. Her father went to Peshawar to protest and lobby for support, while she was sent into the countryside to live with relatives. "I'm really bored because I have no books to read," she is filmed saying in the documentary.[5]

That month, after criticising militants at a press conference, Yousafzai's father received a death threat over the radio by a Pakistani Taliban commander.[5] Yousafzai was deeply inspired in her activism by her father. That summer, for the first time, she committed to becoming a politician and not a doctor, as she had once aspired to be.[5]

By early July, refugee camps were filled to capacity. The prime minister made a long-awaited announcement saying it was safe to return to the Swat Valley. The Pakistani military had pushed the Taliban out of the cities and into the countryside. Yousafzai's family reunited, and on 24 July 2009 they headed home. They made one stop first—to meet with a group of other grassroots activists that had been invited to see United States President Barack Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke. Yousafzai pleaded with Holbrooke to intervene in the situation, saying, "Respected ambassador, if you can help us in our education, so please help us." When her family finally returned home, they found it had not been damaged, and her school had sustained only light damage.[5]

Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, one of Yousafzai's sources of inspiration

Following the documentary, Yousafzai was interviewed on the national Pashto-language station AVT Khyber, the Urdu-language Daily Aaj, and Canada's Toronto Star.[40] She made a second appearance on Capital Talk on 19 August 2009.[47] Her BBC blogging identity was being revealed in articles by December 2009.[48][49] She also began appearing on television to publicly advocate for female education.[39] From 2009 to 2010 she was the chair of the District Child Assembly of the Khpal Kor Foundation.[50][51]

In 2011, Yousafzai trained with local girls' empowerment organisation, Aware Girls, run by Gulalai Ismail, whose training included advice on women's rights and empowerment to peacefully oppose radicalisation through education.[52]

In October 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African activist, nominated Yousafzai for the International Children's Peace Prize of the Dutch international children's advocacy group, KidsRights Foundation. She was the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award. The announcement said, "Malala dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know girls should also have the right to go to school."[53] The award was won by Michaela Mycroft of South Africa.[54]

Yousafzai's public profile rose even further when she was awarded Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize two months later in December.[38][53] On 19 December 2011, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani awarded her the National Peace Award for Youth. At the ceremony, she stated she was not a member of any political party, but hoped to found a national party of her own to promote education.[55] The prime minister directed the authorities to set up an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women at Yousafzai's request, and a secondary school was renamed in her honour.[56] By 2012, she was planning to organise the Malala Education Foundation, which would help poor girls go to school.[57] In 2012, she attended the International Marxist Tendency National Marxist Summer School.[58][59] In a television interview the same year, she named Barack Obama, Benazir Bhutto and Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan), a Pashtun leader known for his nonviolent Khudai Khidmatgar resistance movement against the British Raj, as inspirations for her activism.[9]

After the shooting, Yousafzai was airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar, where doctors were forced to operate after swelling developed in the left portion of her brain, which had been damaged by the bullet when it passed through her head.[64] After a five-hour operation, doctors successfully removed the bullet, which had lodged in her shoulder near her spinal cord. The day following the attack, doctors performed a decompressive craniectomy, in which part of her skull was removed to allow room for swelling.[65]

On 11 October 2012, a panel of Pakistani and British doctors decided to move Yousafzai to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi.[65] Mumtaz Khan, a doctor, said that she had a 70% chance of survival.[66] Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Yousafzai would be moved to Germany, where she could receive the best medical treatment, as soon as she was stable enough to travel. A team of doctors would travel with her, and the government would bear the cost of her treatment.[67][68] Doctors reduced Yousafzai's sedation on 13 October, and she moved all four limbs.[69]

Offers to treat Yousafzai came from around the world.[70] On 15 October, Yousafzai travelled to the United Kingdom for further treatment, approved by both her doctors and family. Her plane landed in Birmingham, England, where she was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, one of the specialties of this hospital being the treatment of military personnel injured in conflict.[71] According to media reports at the time, the UK Government stated that "[t]he Pakistani government is paying all transport, migration, medical, accommodation and subsistence costs for Malala and her party."[72]

Yousafzai had come out of her coma by 17 October 2012, was responding well to treatment, and was said to have a good chance of fully recovering without any brain damage.[73] Later updates on 20 and 21 October stated that she was stable, but was still battling an infection.[74] By 8 November, she was photographed sitting up in bed.[75] On 11 November, Yousafzai underwent surgery for eight and a half hours, in order to repair her facial nerve.[61]

On 3 January 2013, Yousafzai was discharged from the hospital to continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary home in the West Midlands,[76][77] where she had weekly physiotherapy.[61] She underwent a five-hour-long operation on 2 February to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing with a cochlear implant, after which she was reported to be in stable condition.[78][79] Yousafzai wrote in July 2014 that her facial nerve had recovered up to 96%.[61]

Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and their daughter Malia meet Yousafzai in the Oval Office, 11 October 2013

The murder attempt received worldwide media coverage and produced an outpouring of sympathy and anger. Protests against the shooting were held in several Pakistani cities the day after the attack, and over 2 million people signed the Right to Education campaign's petition, which led to ratification[80][81] of the first Right to Education Bill in Pakistan.[82] Pakistani officials offered a 10 million rupee (US$105,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers. Responding to concerns about his safety, Yousafzai's father said: "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets."[68]

Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari described the shooting as an attack on "civilized people".[83] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a "heinous and cowardly act".[84] United States President Barack Obama found the attack "reprehensible, disgusting and tragic",[85] while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Yousafzai had been "very brave in standing up for the rights of girls" and that the attackers had been "threatened by that kind of empowerment".[86] British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the shooting "barbaric" and that it had "shocked Pakistan and the world".[87]

American singer Madonna dedicated her song "Human Nature" to Yousafzai at a concert in Los Angeles the day of the attack,[88] and also had a temporary Malala tattoo on her back.[89] American actress Angelina Jolie wrote an article explaining the event to her children and answering questions like "Why did those men think they needed to kill Malala?"[90] Jolie later donated $200,000 to the Malala Fund[91] for girls' education.[92] Former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she compared Yousafzai to Holocaust diarist Anne Frank.[93]

Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that Yousafzai "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity", adding that if she survived, the group would target her again.[94] In the days following the attack, the Pakistani Taliban reiterated its justification, saying Yousafzai had been brainwashed by her father: "We warned him several times to stop his daughter from using dirty language against us, but he didn't listen and forced us to take this extreme step."[63] The Pakistani Taliban also justified its attack as part of religious scripture, stating that the Quran says that "people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed", going on to say that "Sharia says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam".[95]

On 12 October 2012, a group of Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā – a ruling of Islamic law – against the Taliban gunmen who tried to kill Yousafzai. Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council publicly denounced attempts by the Pakistani Taliban to mount religious justifications for the shooting of Yousafzai and two of her classmates.[96]

Although the attack was roundly condemned in Pakistan,[97] "some fringe Pakistani political parties and extremist outfits" have aired conspiracy theories, such as the shooting being staged by the American Central Intelligence Agency to provide an excuse for continuing drone attacks.[98] The Pakistani Taliban and some other pro-Pakistani Taliban elements branded Yousafzai an "American spy".[99][100][101][102]

On 15 October 2012, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister, visited Yousafzai while she was in the hospital,[103] and launched a petition in her name and "in support of what Malala fought for".[104] Using the slogan "I am Malala", the petition's main demand was that there be no child left out of school by 2015, with the hope that "girls like Malala everywhere will soon be going to school".[105] Brown said he would hand the petition to President Zardari in Islamabad in November.[104]

The petition contains three demands:

• We call on Pakistan to agree to a plan to deliver education for every child.
• We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls.
• We call on international organisations to ensure the world's 61 million out-of-school children are in education by the end of 2015.[105]

The day after the shooting, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated that the Taliban gunman who shot Yousafzai had been identified.[106] Police named 23-year-old Atta Ullah Khan, a graduate student in chemistry, as the gunman in the attack.[107] As of 2015, he remained at large, possibly in Afghanistan.[108][109]

The police also arrested six men for involvement in the attack, but they were later released due to lack of evidence.[108] In November 2012, US sources confirmed that Mullah Fazlullah, the cleric who ordered the attack on Yousafzai, was hiding in eastern Afghanistan.[110] He was killed by a U.S.-Afghan air strike in June 2018.[111]

On 12 September 2014, ISPR Director, Major General Asim Bajwa, told a media briefing in Islamabad that the 10 attackers belonged to a militant group called "Shura". General Bajwa said that Israrur Rehman was the first member of the militant group to be identified and apprehended by troops. Acting upon the information received during his interrogation, all other members of the militant group were arrested. It was an intelligence-based joint operation conducted by ISI, police, and the military.[112][113]

In April 2015, the ten men who had been arrested were sentenced to life in prison by Judge Mohammad Amin Kundi, a counterterrorism judge, with the chance of eligibility for parole, and possible release, after 25 years. It is not known whether the actual would-be murderers were among the ten sentenced.[109] In June 2015, it was revealed that eight of the ten men tried in-camera for the attack had in fact been secretly acquitted, and insiders revealed that one of the men acquitted and freed had been the mastermind behind the murder bid. It is believed that all the other men involved in the shooting of Yousafzai fled to Afghanistan soon afterwards and were never even captured. The information about the release of suspects came to light after the London Daily Mirror attempted to locate the men in prison. Senior police official Salim Khan stated that the eight men were released because there was not enough evidence to connect them to the attack.[114][115]

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arranged for Yousafzai's appearance before the United Nations in July 2013.[103] Brown also requested that McKinsey consultant Shiza Shahid, a friend of the Yousafzai family, chair Yousafzai's charity fund, which had gained the support of Angelina Jolie.[103] Google's vice-president Megan Smith also sits on the fund's board.[143]

In November 2012, the consulting firm Edelman began work for Yousafzai on a pro bono basis, which according to the firm "involves providing a press office function for Malala".[103][143] The office employs five people, and is headed by speechwriter Jamie Lundie.[143] McKinsey also continues to provide assistance to Yousafzai.[143]

Yousafzai on a special visit to Strasbourg in November 2013

Malala with Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis in 2015

On 12 July 2013, Yousafzai's 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. The UN dubbed the event "Malala Day".[144] Yousafzai wore one of Benazir Bhutto's shawls to the UN. It was her first public speech since the attack,[145] leading the first ever Youth Takeover of the UN, with an audience of over 500 young education advocates from around the world.[146]

The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born ... I am not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I'm here to speak up for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists.[145]

Yousafzai received several standing ovations. Ban Ki-moon, who also spoke at the session, described her as "our hero".[144] Yousafzai also presented the chamber with "The Education We Want",[147] a Youth Resolution of education demands written by Youth for Youth, in a process co-ordinated by the UN Global Education First Youth Advocacy Group,[148] telling her audience:

Malala day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights.[149]

The Pakistani government did not comment on Yousafzai's UN appearance, amid a backlash against her in Pakistan's press and social media.[150][151]

Words from the speech were used as lyrics for "Speak Out", a song by Kate Whitley commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on International Women's Day 2017.[152][153]

On 8 October 2013 Malala, at the age of 16, visited The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an American television programme, her first major late night appearance.[154][155] She was there as a guest to promote her book, I Am Malala. On the program they discussed her assassination attempt, human rights, and women's education.[156] She left Jon Stewart speechless when she described her thoughts after learning the Pakistani Taliban wanted her dead, saying:

I started thinking about that, and I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill me. But then I said, "If he comes, what would you do Malala?" then I would reply to myself, "Malala, just take a shoe and hit him." But then I said, "If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education." Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that "I even want education for your children as well." And I will tell him, "That"s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.[157]

Stewart, visibly moved by her words, ended the conversation saying: "I am humbled to speak with you."[158] Stewart would again have her as a guest on the show after the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting, in which he started the show citing no jokes saying, "our guest is a incredible person who suffered unspeakable violence by extremists and her perseverance and determination through that to continue on is an incredibly inspiration and to be quite honestly with you, I don't think there's anyone else in the world I would rather talk to tonight than Malala so that's what we'll do and sorry about no jokes."[159][160][161]

External video
Nobel Lecture by Malala Yousafzai

Yousafzai's shawl on display at the Nobel Prize Museum

On 10 October 2014, Yousafzai was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Having received the prize at the age of 17, Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel laureate.[20][21][162] Yousafzai shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India.[163] She is the second Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize after 1979 Physics laureate Abdus Salam.[164]

After she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, there was praise, but also some disapproval of the decision.[165][166] A Norwegian jurist, Fredrik Heffermehl, commented on being awarded the Nobel Prize: "This is not for fine people who have done nice things and are glad to receive it. All of that is irrelevant. What Nobel wanted was a prize that promoted global disarmament."[167]

Adán Cortés, a college student from Mexico City and asylum seeker, interrupted Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in protest for the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping in Mexico, but was quickly taken away by security personnel. Yousafzai later sympathised, and acknowledged that problems are faced by young people all over the world, saying "there are problems in Mexico, there are problems even in America, even here in Norway, and it is really important that children raise their voices".[168]

In March 2018, Yousafzai was the subject of an interview with David Letterman for his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. Speaking about the Taliban, she opined that their misogyny comes from a superiority complex, and is reinforced by finding "excuses" in culture or literature, such as by misinterpreting teachings of Islam.[169] On the topic of her attackers, Yousafzai comments: "I forgive them because that's the best revenge I can have." Pointing out that the person who attacked her was a young boy, she says: "He thought he was doing the right thing".[170]

Asked about the presidency of Donald Trump, Yousafzai said: "Some of the things have really disappointed me, like sexual harassment and the ban on Muslims and racism."[171] She also criticised the Trump administration's proposed budget cuts to education, saying that education is the first step to "eradicating extremism and ending poverty". Throughout the episode, clips are shown of Yousafzai acting as a tour guide for prospective students to her college Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.[169]

On 7 March 2022, Malala Yousafzai advocated for every woman's right to decide to wear what she likes for herself, from a burqa to a bikini. She also advised against others coming to her with their wardrobe notes.[172]

Reception of Yousafzai in Pakistan is mostly negative. Her opposition to the policy of Talibanisation made her unpopular among Taliban sympathisers.[176][177] A Dawn columnist said she was scapegoated by the "failing state government,"[176] and a journalist in The Nation wrote Yousafzai was hated by "overzealous patriots" who were keen to deny the oppression of women in Pakistan.[177] Her statements conflicted with the view that militancy in Pakistan was a result of Western interference,[150] and conservatives and Islamic fundamentalists described her ideology as "anti-Pakistan".[178][179]

In 2015, the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) banned her autobiographical book, I Am Malala, at all Pakistani private schools, with the APPSF president Mirza Kashif Ali releasing his own book against her, I Am Not Malala.[180] His book accused Yousafzai of attacking the Pakistan Armed Forces under the pretence of female education, described her father as a "double agent" and "traitor", and denounced the Malala Fund's promotion of secular education. However, Ali pointed out that the APPSF had went on a national strike when Yousafzai was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban.[181] Conspiracy theorists in newspapers and social media also alleged that Yousafzai had staged her assassination attempt, or that she was an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[151][150] Many Pakistanis view her as an "agent of the West",[182] due to her Nobel prize, Oxford education and residence in England.[183] Another conspiracy theory alleges that Yousafzai is a Jewish agent.[183][178] Farman Nawaz argued in Daily Outlook Afghanistan that Yousafzai would have gained more fame in Pakistan if she belonged to the province of Punjab.[184] Yousafzai is seen as courageous by some Pakistanis.[178]

On 29 March 2018, Yousafzai returned to Pakistan for the first time since the shooting. Meeting Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,[185] she gave a speech in which she said it had been her dream to return without any fear.[186] Yousafzai then visited her hometown Mingora in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[187] The APPSF, representing 173,000 private schools in Pakistan, organised an "I Am Not Malala Day" on 30 March in response to what the federation said were her "anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan" views.[180] Yousafzai responded by saying "I am proud of my religion and country."[179]

Many people in India have accused Yousafzai of spreading the "Pakistani agenda" over the Kashmir conflict, and being selective in condemning human rights abuses. On 7 August 2019, following the Indian revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Yousafzai expressed her concern about the situation and appealed to the international community to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir.[188]

On 14 September 2019, Malala posted a tweet, in which she said that a Kashmiri girl told her: "I feel purposeless and depressed because I can't go to school. I missed my exams on August 12 and I feel my future is insecure now."[189][190] However, many Twitter users pointed out that on 12 August 2019, it was Eid al-Adha in India, a public holiday when schools were closed across the country, so an exam would not be even possible on that day.[191] After her tweet, Yousafzai was widely criticised on Twitter, including by some Indian celebrities.[192][193][194][195]

In July 2021, amid a major offensive by the Taliban insurgents, Yousafzai urged the international community to press for an immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan and provide humanitarian aid to Afghan civilians.[196] Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021, she expressed concern about the fate of women's rights, fearing that women in Afghanistan would lose the social and educational gains that had been made during the previous Afghan government's two decades.[197]

Yousafzai condemned the Taliban's ban on girls' education beyond 6th grade, and said "the Taliban will continue to make excuses to prevent girls from learning beyond primary school."[198] She said the Taliban "want to erase girls and women from all public life in Afghanistan," and asked "leaders around the world to take collective action to hold the Taliban accountable for violating the human rights of millions of women and girls."[199]