Twelve years after she was evacuated out of Pakistan as a badly wounded schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai has returned to her home country at a critical time for girls’ education.”For her, it is a homecoming to a region that shaped who she is today, but also a reminder of the work still left unfinished,” Yousafzai’s friend and fellow rights activist Nighat Dad told AFP.Millions more families are living in poverty while more than a third of children are still out of school, as the cash-strapped state grapples with cycles of political chaos and resurging militancy.In neighbouring Afghanistan, the Taliban have returned to power and imposed an austere interpretation of Islamic law that includes banning girls from studying at secondary school and university.This weekend, 27-year-old Yousafzai was the guest of honour at a global summit on girls’ education in Islamic nations hosted by Islamabad, where she called on leaders to stand up for Muslim girls.”Her presence in Pakistan during such a time is a message to those in power: the fight for education cannot be silenced, whether it’s in the Swat Valley or across the border in Afghanistan,” Dad added.In 2012 at the age of 15, Yousafzai was shot in the head while on her way home from school by a Pakistan Taliban militant incensed by an education blog she wrote.At the time, an insurgency against the government had spread to her remote, picturesque Swat Valley and militants had ordered girls to stay home.Across the frontier, the war raged between NATO forces and the Afghan Taliban, a separate but closely linked group from the Pakistan Taliban which flourished in the border regions.- ‘Malala is a paradox’ -Always flanked by heavy security, Yousafzai has made only a handful of public visits to Pakistan since her evacuation to Britain, where she made a remarkable recovery and went on to become the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17.Since then she has frequently shared the world stage with international leaders.But Pakistan’s relationship with her is complicated: a symbol of resilience and pride to some, and a stooge of the West to others, in a country where Islam is perceived as under threat by creeping Western values.Sanam Maher, an author who has written about high-profile Pakistani women, told AFP that Yousafzai is a “contentious figure”.”There’s a perception of her being ‘handled’ or ‘managed’, which creates distrust”, she said.”There are many who criticise Malala for her absence in Pakistan,” she added. “They are indifferent to her commitment.”Still, Yousafzai retains star power in Pakistan, especially among young girls.”Malala is an icon and a powerful voice for girls’ education. She has faced violence, hatred, and criticism simply for advocating for girls’ education,” said Hadia Sajid, a 22-year-old media student who attended Yousafzai’s closing speech in Islamabad.”It’s disheartening that things remain largely unchanged since she left, but there has been marginal improvement, largely due to the impact of social media — it’s more difficult to hold back girls from their rights.”Yousafzai founded the Malala Fund with her father, once a teacher in the Swat Valley who pushed against societal norms to champion his daughter’s education.The charity has invested millions of dollars in tackling the plight of 120 million girls out of school across the world.”Pakistan is where I began my journey and where my heart will always be,” Yousafzai said in her speech on Sunday.But in her native country the projects she backs in rural areas are rarely publicised.”I still think Malala is a paradox in Pakistan,” said Dad.”While her global achievements are undeniable, officials and the public remain divided, caught between admiration and mistrust. Yet Malala’s impact transcends these perceptions,” Dad told AFP.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders on Sunday not to legitimise the Afghan Taliban government and to “show true leadership” over their assault on women’s rights.”Do not legitimise them,” she said at a summit focused on girls’ education in Islamic nations being held in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.”As Muslim leaders, now is the time to raise your voices, use your power. You can show true leadership. You can show true Islam,” said 27-year-old Yousafzai.The two-day conference has brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League (MWL). Since sweeping back to power in 2021, the Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary school and university. Delegates from Afghanistan’s Taliban government did not attend the event despite being invited, Pakistan Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP on Saturday.”Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings,” Yousafzai told the conference. “They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification.”Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and MWL secretary general, on Saturday told the summit that “those who say that girls’ education is un-Islamic are wrong”.Yousafzai also highlighted the impact of wars in Yemen, Sudan and Gaza on schooling.”In Gaza, Israel has decimated the entire education system,” she said. “I will continue to call out Israel’s violations of international law and human rights.”- Taliban engagement -Pakistan’s state PTV channel censored a portion of her speech which alluded to a mass deportation scheme by Islamabad launched in 2023 that has seen hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals leave under threat of arrest. “I cannot imagine an Afghan girl or an Afghan woman being forced back into the system that denies her future,” she told the conference in remarks cut from the air.Yousafzai was shot in the face by the Pakistani Taliban when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2012, amid her campaigning for female education rights.Her activism earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, and she has since become a global advocate for women and girls’ education rights.While there is outcry in much of the international community over the Taliban government curbs, nations are divided over how to engage with Kabul’s rulers on the issue.Some countries argue they should be frozen out of the diplomatic community until they backtrack, while others prefer engagement to coax them into a U-turn.No country has officially recognised the Taliban authorities, but several regional governments have engaged on the topics of trade and security. There is little evidence that broadsides from the international community over the Taliban government’s treatment of women are having any impact on their position.Yousafzai’s father Ziauddin Yousafzai, who pushed against cultural norms for his daughter to go to school in Pakistan and co-founded her Malala Fund charity, on Saturday told AFP he had not seen “any serious step or serious action from the Muslim world” on the cause of girls’ education in Afghanistan. Roza Otunbayeva — head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan — said leaders of Islamic countries should offer direct help to Afghan girls.”I really call on all these ministers… who came from all over the world, to offer scholarships, to have online education, to have all sorts of education for them,” she told a panel.