HOMECOMING

Malala Makes First Visit to Pakistani Hometown Since Taliban Attack

She met with family and friends under tight security in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whose fight against the Taliban won her world renown, returned to her childhood home in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on Saturday for the first time since being shot by a Taliban militant there in 2012. Upon entering the home, she reportedly burst into tears. “They were weeping. They were kneeling on the ground. They were touching the mud with their eyes,” Farid-ul-Haq Haqqani, a family friend, said of Malala and her family, according to Reuters. Malala, who was targeted by the Taliban for her advocacy for girls’ education, visited her hometown under tight security provided by the government and military. The trip was initially in doubt due to safety concerns, but Malala said she “had never been so excited for anything” as she was for visiting home. The 20-year-old Oxford University student told Reuters she misses “everything about Pakistan … even the dirty streets and the garbage” near her home.